Miraculous: Tales of Dark Chaos: Dawn of Darkness
by White Fire the Dragon
Summary: (Intro and Theme) In the after math of recent events, Shadow's quest takes a dark turn as it nears it end.
1. Chapter 1

Episode 4: Dawn of Darkness

Alya walked Marinette home.

"We'll try again tomorrow, after school." Alya said as they arrived.

"Thanks for trying, Alya." Marinette said to her best friend.

"Don't worry, Marinette." Alya said, taking her best friend's hands encouragingly. "We are going to figure this out."

Marinette couldn't help but smile at her best friend's encouragement.

"Goodnight." Said Marinette, giving Alya a quick hug.

"Goodnight." Said Tikki, poking her head out to speak.

"See you girls tomorrow." Said Alya, waving as she walked away.

Marinette turned around to face the door and let her smiled drop into a frown.

"It's alright, Marinette." Said Tikki. "Like Alya said, 'We are going to figure this out'."

Marinette wanted to believe her and Alya, but despite their words, she still couldn't shake the unbearable feeling it her heart. As Marinette and Tikki entered the building, Alya turned back to watched them before the door closed.

"That girl really needs help." Suddenly, she caught sight of a green flash of light shine through one of the windows. "But she might not be the only one."

* * *

The next morning, Marinette came down just in time for breakfast.

"Good morning, Marinette." Said Sabine.

"Morning, Mom." Marinette responded sleepily, ending with a yawn.

"Rough night, honey?" Sabine questioned.

"Just had some trouble sleeping is all."

She looked around and noticed that Shadow was nowhere to be seen. She guessed that he was down in the bakery.

"Did Shadow finish eating already?"

"No. He hasn't come out of his room yet. I think I'd better go check on him."

Sabine left the kitchen and exited out the door. She walked up to the guestroom/Shadow's room and knocked on the door.

"Shadow, are you ready?" She called through the door.

All that she heard in reply was a struggling groan.

"Shadow?" She called again.

"_(groan)_ I… I'll be… _Oh_! Just give me a minute!" He sounded like he was struggling to speak.

Out of worry, Sabine used her spare guestroom key and opened the door to see what was wrong. What she saw was Shadow with his head looking downward, not wearing a shirt, sitting up and struggling to push himself out of bed.

"Shadow, are you feeling alright?"

"I'm… I'm fi—_Ah_!" His hand slipped off of the edge of the nightstand that he was using to try and brace himself on, and the rest of him followed until he was completely on the floor.

"Shadow!" Sabine exclaimed in extreme worry.

Motherly instincts kicking in, she rushed to his side. Sabine gently turned his body so that he was on his back and supported his head with her arm. The reason for him removing his shirt became clear when she saw all of the sweat on his body. She used her free hand to check his head. Shadow refused to open his eyes because he still wasn't wearing his contacts.

"You have a fever!"

"What happened?!" Exclaimed Marinette as she just came into view.

"Sabine what's wrong?!" Exclaimed Tom as he appeared behind her.

"Tom, call the school, tell them Shadow can't come in today."

Tom went off to do just that.

"I'm fine… Sabine. I'm—" Shadow was cut off by a sudden coughing fit.

"You not fine, Shadow." She said to him sternly. "You're sick and you're staying home."

"'Sick'?!" Marinette questioned in worry.

"That's im-possible." Shadow gave a few more coughs and another groan before he continued speaking. "I can't get sick."

"Well, tell that to your fever. I'm sorry, Shadow, but no school for you today." Sabine helped Shadow to his feet so that she could get him back into bed. "But don't worry. Some bedrest and some hot soup, and I'm sure you'll be just fine."

"But I'm not si— _Ah_!" Shadow grabbed his abdomen when he felt it hurting after sitting down.

"There's no way around it, Shadow." Sabine then got up and walked to the door. "You're only human after all."

Shadow slowly turned himself around as Sabine approached the door.

"Marinette, you go and eat, and then head off to school." Said Sabine to her daughter. "Your father and I will take care of Shadow."

Marinette looked at the back of Shadow's head.

"Will he be alright?"

"We'll have to wait and see, but we shouldn't worry." She then turned _her_ head as she spoke to Shadow. "Shadow, I'm going to make you some soup to help you feel better. Yell if you need me."

While Sabine walked to her living room door, Marinette remained and looked at Shadow in his miserable state, wondering if it was somehow related to… recent events. Soon enough, she too left and went on her way to school. And so, Shadow was left by himself with nothing but his bizarre illness. Shadow wanted to tell Sabine not to trouble herself with making him anything, but the pain that was coursing through him kept him at bay. All that he could do at the moment was lie there in pain and misery, hoping that neither Sabine nor Tom would think to call a doctor. The last thing that _he_ needed was them finding out that he wasn't completely normal, which would probably warrant him needing to go to a hospital, which would only make things worse.

* * *

Marinette arrived in class, late as per the "old" usual.

"Late again, Marinette?" Asked Miss Bustier when she heard the door open. "I heard Shadow was sick today. I hope he gets well soon. Now please take your seat."

"Yes, Ma'am." Said Marinette as she made her way to her seat next to Alya.

"Marí, are you alright?" Adrien asked with concern.

"Yeah, we didn't hear from either one of you yesterday." Said Nino.

"Uh, sorry, guys." Said Marinette. "Something important came up."

After a moment, Alya brought up another issue.

"Is it true? Is Shadow really sick?"

"I… I think so. He looked so… bad and… miserable. He looked like he was in pain. I hope it's nothing serious."

* * *

Half an hour later, Sabine walked out into the stairwell carying a bowl of freshly made soup for Shadow, but stopped when she saw him outside his bedroom.

"Shadow!"

He slowly turned his head and saw her with his brown eyes.

"I had to use the bathroom."

"Well, now that you've taken care of it, **please** go back to your room. You need to stay in bed."

She then took the liberty to lead him back to his room so that he could return to bed. Once this was accomplished, Shadow then sat up in his bed so that Sabine could place the soup in his lap for him to eat.

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome, but stay in bed." As Shadow ate his soup, it was at that moment that Sabine realized something strange about him. "Shadow, look at me."

When she gently grabbed his chin and turned his face toward _hers_, Shadow looked at her as if she had gone mad. She studied his face intently, leaving Shadow to wonder what was going on. Her eyes widened after a few seconds of examining his face.

"I'm calling a doctor." She said as she stood up.

"What?!" Shadow said incredulously.

"Your face is deep red and I'm pretty sure your eyes were a darker shade of brown before." As Sabine stated what was wrong with him, Shadow was already understanding what was happening. "I'm calling the doctor to see if he can come and take a look at you."

Shadow knew that he had to do something. So, he focused his chaos to try and correct what was wrong.

"AUGH!"

That was a mistake. His body began experiencing immense pain. His face and eyes **looked** like they were back to normal, but he felt like he was burning from the inside-out, and his groans, pants and not to mention sweating were making it obvious to those around him. Sabine heard this and decided to not waste any more time.

"Shadow, try to eat something." Sabine said as she pulled out her phone. "I'm calling the doctor, right now."

With that, she left the room. Shadow knew that if the doctor were to look him over, they would know that his condition wasn't a normal one and suggest that they take him to the hospital where they would discover that he wasn't human.

"I can't allow that to happen." He soon realized that he had said that in French despite being alone and shook his head violently. "EH…! [I-I mean; I can't allow that to happen.]"

* * *

Class had ended, and Marinette was getting her stuff together when Nathaniel walked up beside her.

"Um, hey, Marinette." He said to her, gaining her attention.

"Nathan?" She replied.

"I wanted to ask how Shadow was doing." He seemed pretty uneasy, but she wrote it off as him being worried for Shadow.

Marinette turned away, sadly. Ever since the kiss just the other day, things seemed to only get worse. And now Shadow was sick in bed, but Marinette didn't want Nathaniel to worry, so she turned back around with a smile.

"It's just a small fever. Don't worry."

"Great! I hope he gets better." He said, looking relieved, and then turned to leave, but he soon turned back around before even making it to the door. "Um, actually, I noticed that Shadow didn't seem quite himself yesterday before going on his date with Juleka. I talked with Nino and Adrien about it at his house, but they didn't know anything. I know he's staying with you so, do _you_ know what's wrong?"

She turned away with a downcast expression.

"Yes. I do…"

"Then can you—"

"But I can't talk with you about it."

Nathaniel frowned at this.

"Oh."

"Sorry. Bye, Nathan." Marinette said as she pulled her packed backpack over her shoulders.

"Bye." He said as she passed by him and left.

* * *

Hours later, Marinette was on her way out of school with her friends.

"He'll be fine." Said Alya. "He's Shadow. You know, the guy who claims to be the 'Ultimate Lifeform' or something."

"I know, but… he just… He looked terrible." Said Marinette.

"Was he really that bad?" Asked Plagg.

"He certainly didn't look good." Responded Tikki.

"That's not the only thing that doesn't look good." Said Nino as soon as they were all on the front steps of the school.

Everyone turned and saw what he was talking about. There were two cars parked in front of Marinette's home and one of them was a police car. Out of worry, she rushed straight home, her friends following behind her. As soon as they entered the bakery and saw that nobody was downstairs, they all rushed upstairs to Shadow's room where they saw Marinette's parents talking to two police officers and a man with a case at his side and a notepad and pen in his hands.

"Mrs. Cheng," said the man holding the notepad and pen, "can you describe his symptoms to me again?"

"Yes. He was—"

"Mom? Dad? What's going on?!" Marinette asked, interrupting her mother.

"It's Shadow." Said Tom.

"He's missing." Said Sabine.

"'Missing'?!" The children repeated in shock.

"He was getting worse and when I left for just a moment to call a doctor, Shadow just… disappeared! I didn't even see him come through the stairwell; it's as if he just vanished into thin air!"

This information explained the unfamiliar company; the man with the case was the doctor whom Sabine called to come and check on Shadow, and the police were here because Sabine called them when they noticed that Shadow was gone.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Cheng. Young children run away from doctors all the time." Said one of the two police officers. "Your son's probably just hiding in the cupboards or under someone's bed."

All of the adults then face palmed at the officer's ignorance.

"We already told you," said Tom, "he's not our son **and** he's a teenager in **high school**!"

It was at this time that Adrien noticed something and stepped aside to investigate while no one was looking.

"_Ahem_. Mrs. Cheng, the symptoms?" Asked the doctor.

"Oh, well, he had a fever and he was sweating a lot, but what **really** worried me was when his eyes changed color."

That was when the children's eyes widened once again.

"H-his eyes…?" Marinette asked worriedly.

"Huh?" Her mother responded upon hearing her. "Oh, yes. His eyes were dark-brown before, but when I last saw him, his face was red and his eyes looked… lighter, like a lighter shade of brown."

Marinette, Alya, Tikki, Adrien, Nino and Plagg all knew what this meant. So, while the doctor started to verbally attempt to debunk Shadow's mystery ailment and the police continued to question Tom and Sabine, the children decided to excuse themselves.

"Well, Mom and Dad and… others, my friends and I have a very important… um, study session to get started on!" Marinette declared as she and the others started to exit the room; however, before she got to the door, she stopped so that she could say one last thing.

"If you see him, please… tell me… I want to be sure that he's alright."

Her parents smiled at her compassionate worry.

"Don't worry, Marinette. If we hear anything, you'll be the first one we call." Said Tom.

Marinette smiled before leaving. Once they were in the main apartment, she and her friends then ascended up the stairs and entered her room. Only after they made sure that the trapdoor entrance was closed did they start talking.

"Alright, so what are we gonna do?" Asked Alya.

"Isn't it obvious?" Asked Marinette. "We go find him!"

"Uh-huh, and just **how **are we supposed to do **that**?" Questioned Plagg. "I mean, come on! With Shadow's abilities, he could be anywhere in the city!"

"Not in **his** condition." Stated Tikki. "This morning, he couldn't even get out of bed. If I'm right and he's getting worse, then I doubt he could have gone too far."

"Tikki's right. We have to find him." Said Marinette as she and the others made their way to her balcony where she continued speaking. "Alright, now, if we split up, we can cover more ground."

"And even more with a little help from Ladybug and Chat Noir." Said Nino.

"My thoughts exactly!" Exclaimed Adrien, giving Nino a high-five afterwards. "Let's go! This cat's ready for a mouse hunt! Or should I say a hedgehog hunt?"

"Tikki, Spots O—"

_**SKRT**_

Marinette stopped herself before she could finish as soon as she heard a scraping sound from nearby. She turned to look at the balcony wall that separated it from the actual rooftops.

"Marí?" Adrien questioningly called when he noticed that she didn't finish the command.

"_Shush_." She silenced him, as well as the others with that one sound.

She couldn't hear anything over the sounds of wind, cars, and pigeons, but that did nothing to discourage her suspicions.

"Guys, I think we should talk somewhere else. _(whisper)_ I don't think we're alone up here."

With this information, everyone understood and re-entered her bedroom. The one spying on them from two chimneys over, held his breath until he heard their footsteps fade and the trapdoor close. He waited for a moment, and then another, and then another, until he couldn't take it anymore. He released his held breath, grunted in pain and wiped the sweat from his brow. He grabbed for his stomach and hunched over. In his haste to ease his pain, he almost slipped and fell. Luckily, he managed to grab hold of the chimney that he was trying to hide behind before falling. After pulling himself back, he sighed.

"That was close." Came a voice from directly behind him, gaining his attention.

He turned around to discover that it was none other than Marinette standing behind him with Tikki floating beside her. He didn't look the least bit surprised, what with her clever mind and silent feet. As she smiled at him, he kept his face neutral as he turned away.

"So you knew it was me all along." Shadow said to her.

"Like I just said, you were in no condition to move too far." Tikki said to him.

Shadow was wearing his superhero costume, sans his mask and gloves, and he was holding his backpack by the strap.

"What are you doing, Shadow?" Tikki asked him.

"Hiding from the doctors, what do you think?" He answered her.

"That's not what I meant." Shadow turned around to give her a condescending look after he heard her say this. "I mean, why are you hiding from **us**?"

Shadow didn't feel up to answering that question. Marinette picked up on this, but could not just leave one of her friends out on a ledge, literally.

"Shadow, if this is about the kiss, th—"

"It's **not**… about… the kiss." Shadow said, interrupting Marinette, followed by a moment of silence. "At least… I don't think it is… I think I'm changing."

Marinette looked worried.

"Is it… Hawkmoth's power?"

"What else…? It started last night… when an akuma… came for Juleka."

"What?!" The girls asked in worried shock.

"I stopped it… and drained it's… power, but… I guess it… infected… me."

"Maybe you **should** let someone look you over?" Suggested Tikki.

"You want me to let a doctor look over my body and discover that I'm not human?!" Shadow's voice went from calm to hostile as he spoke, making the little red Kwami hide behind her owner.

"Shadow, that's not what she—" Marinette was interrupted by Shadow coughing into his hand.

When he was done, Shadow pulled his hand away from his mouth and allowed Marinette to see something that made her eyes widen. What had come out of his mouth wasn't spit.

* * *

The blood thing is from my own personal head-canon.

* * *

In fact, she didn't know **what** it was. Whatever it was, it was thick and it was blackish-green with some red mixed in.

"Shadow… what is—?" Shadow interrupted her by coughing more blackish-green and red stuff onto his hand.

"_(ahem)_ My blood." He said, making the girls double back in horror, fearing that his condition was far worse than it appeared to be.

"Shadow, if your blood is turning black and you're coughing it up, then you seriously need to—!"

"It's always been like this." Shadow interrupted Marinette yet again. "That's why I can't let your world's doctors look me over. My blood isn't Human; it's not even Mobian. It's actually 5% Human, 45% Mobian… and 50% Black Arm."

Marinette and Tikki stared at him in confusion.

"'Black Arm'?" Questioned Tikki.

"Remember when I told you how I was made, I said 'an opportunity presented itself'?" Shadow explained. "That 'opportunity' was named **Black Doom**. He was the leader of a race of aliens called the **Black Arms**. It's because of **his** blood that I'm immortal and have such a strong link to the chaos force."

"So, he was like your blood fath—"

"**THAT MONSTER IS NOT MY FATHER!**" Shadow shouted, scaring Tikki, once again.

Shadow coughed up more blood.

"I… _(cough) (cough)_ I'm sorry, Tikki. _(cough)(hack)(cough)_ I didn't mean to shout. It's just… _(cough) (cough)_ I hate to even **think** about my relation to that monster!"

As he continued to cough, Marinette was thinking about what he said.

"What do you mean by… 'monster'?"

Shadow managed to calm down his coughing.

"The Black Arms didn't 'come in peace'. They were a hostile race who saw everything and everyone as either a tool to be used… or as **food**." This frightened to girls when they heard this. "When the professor discovered the Black Arms' home base, **The Black Comet**, he successfully made contact with them. Their leader, Black Doom, struck a deal with the professor. Black Doom agreed to give him a sample of his blood to use in creating the Ultimate Lifeform, and in exchange, the professor would give Black Doom the chaos emeralds. But Professor Gerald soon figured out what Black Doom's true intensions were. Black Doom wanted to use the emeralds' powers to make himself even more powerful so that he could become the most powerful being in the whole universe. He also wanted to use **me** as his Ultimate Weapon of mass destruction.

"Naturally, the professor plotted to double-cross him. He made it so that I could become more than just a weapon or a cure; he wanted me to become a champion of Mobius, a savior of the world; his own personal countermeasure against Black Doom and the Black Arms, and it worked. With the aid of my… my… _(sigh)_… the aid of my **friends**, we defeated the Black Arms and destroyed the Black Comet. And I personally finished off Black Doom, for good. Unfortunately, that still didn't change the fact that I was made with his blood coursing through my veins. And now with your world's dark magic infecting my body, acting as some sort of catalyst… I can feel myself… changing from the inside out… into…"

With each pause, Shadow's grip on himself grew in strength. Marinette, despite feeling worried, kneeled down and spoke in a calm, soothing voice.

"Shadow, you are **not** changing into a monster."

"**What**?!" Shadow snarled before she could say another word, his head halfway turned, still not allowing her to see his whole face.

Marinette had leaned back in shocked fear as soon as he did this. Shadow then faced the chimney and used it to help support himself as he got to his feet. Marinette stood up, as well, taking a few steps back from him. Then, he turned around, keeping his back slightly hunched, his head down and his eyes hidden behind his hair.

"Marinette, look at me." He said in a dark tone, frightening Marinette.

She adverted her eyes as soon as she caught the faintest look of _his_.

"I said… LOOK AT ME!" Shadow got up in her face, his eyes wide open and his mouth snarling as he raised one of his hands up to eye level.

Now that he was finally close enough, Marinette could no longer ignore the changes happening to Shadow. The skin around his eyes was red, his irises were yellow and his pupils had become long slits. His teeth had become sharper. In fact, they looked sharp enough to tear apart human flesh with very little effort. Finally, there were his hands, the fingers looked skinnier than when she last saw them, and his nails appeared to be sharper than usual.

"You're right, I'm _not_ 'changing into a monster'. I've **always** been a monster." Shadow leaned in closer, making Marinette's fear grow by the minute. "I'm changing into **more** **of a monster… than I've EVER BEEN!**"

His tone of voice sounded like it was laced with venom. In fact, somehow, the absurd notion that he might literally spit venom directly at her crossed her mind.

"HEY!" The sound of Adrien's voice made everyone turned to see Chat Noir standing close by. "Back off, Shadow."

"Adrien?" Said Marinette.

"Marinette, come here." Said Chat Noir, not taking his eyes off of Shadow.

"Adrien, I—"

"What are **you** doing here, Agreste?" Asked Shadow, darkly, scowling at him. "This doesn't concern you."

"Adrien, please… just… go back inside." Marinette didn't like the way Shadow was scowling at Chat.

"Marinette, Princess." Chat Noir said sternly as he approached her. "Please, just get away from him."

"I… I…"

_**VOIP**_

"Back off!" Shadow, after dropping his backpack while Marinette was stammering, loudly warned, almost roaring, as he teleported between the two of them. "It's none of your business."

"Marinette is my **girlfriend**! And when someone messes with someone important to me, that **makes** it my business!" As Chat spoke, he stepped closer and closer to Shadow while _he_ gave him the deepest scowl that he could muster and he also seemed to be growling at him. "Marinette's just trying to help you and you're attacking her!"

"I. Would. Never. Attack her. _**You**_ on the other hand."

"You **need** to control yourself or else you're going to hurt her."

"You think I would **ever **allow that?! You don't know anything!"

"I know this isn't you, Shadow." Chat Noir said in a calmer tone. "All this is just the dark influence of Hawk Moth's dark magic. Everything that's happening to you is all because of that."

For about five whole seconds of Shadow scowling at Chat Noir, he started to chuckle ominously.

"'Influence'? Was it 'influence that had me lead every one of you into danger for my sake? Was it 'influence' that made me open up to Marinette on the Eiffel Tower?! Was it 'influence' that made me** betray everyone's trust in me WHEN I KISSED HER?!**"

Shadow's voice echoed throughout the area. Everyone's eyes widened when they heard Shadow blurt this out for all to hear. After a few moments of panting, it finally dawned on Shadow, and his body started to slowly change back as his heart filled with guilt. He expected Adrien to blow up in his face, but… he didn't. Instead, his face went from shocked to calm. He spread his fingers in his right hand out a bit while moving his left to behind him.

"Oh… I see." He said, to the shock of everyone, and then turned to walk away, keeping his left hand out of sight.

He only took one step forward before turning on his heel and throwing his right fist right into Shadow's jaw, screaming all the way. For just about anyone who wasn't strong enough to at least leave a sizable mark in a brick wall with their fist, throwing a direct punch at the Ultimate Lifeform's face would likely result in a sprained wrist, at **least**; however, oddly enough, Chat's punch was somehow strong enough to send Shadow flying.

Shadow hadn't even realized he had been struck until he was flying directly over the sidewalk. That was when the pain started to course through him, and not long after that, after looking to where he was headed, he had crashed into a building across the street, going straight through the wall itself in the process. Without any hesitation, Chat Noir ran to the edge of the rooftop and jumped down to the sidewalk across the street.

"SHADOW, ADRIEN! STOP!" Marinette cried, but her words fell on deaf ears.

People gathered around to see what was going on and saw Chat Noir standing in front of a smoke filled hole. Shadow rose to his feet and pulled some items from his pocket. As the smoke began to clear, a shadowy silhouette emerged from the hole. Once he was clear of the smoke, everyone could clearly see that this was the new hero in Paris, himself, Dark Chaos (now wearing a mask, gloves and with his hood over his head); however, he looked different, mainly his eyes and teeth.

"How. Did you. Do that?" After Dark Chaos had asked this while stepping forward, Chat Noir moved his left hand into view, revealing that he was holding the blue chaos emerald, which made Dark widen his eyes in realization.

* * *

When Shadow came home from his date with Juleka, he was in so much pain, he couldn't be bothered to put his emerald back into his pocket. Instead, he just dropped the emerald, allowing it to fall and make its way underneath his bed as he too dropped onto said bed. Apparently, when he left, he was so sick, he couldn't be bothered to check to see if he had all six emeralds in his possession.

* * *

"Ah, I see. Now I understand." Dark Chaos straightened up once he was no longer standing on rubble. "But I hope that _you_ understand that I have no intention of letting you keep that."

As Dark Chaos got into a battle ready stance, he could still feel his body pulse in pain; however, despite this, he felt an unbearable need to put this "superhero" in his place.

"And _I_ want _you_ to understand that…" Chat Noir tied the emerald to his wrist with his belt and got into a battle ready stance of his own, "_I_ have no intention of letting you take it."

"_(hmph)_ Then I guess we have no other choice." Dark Chaos said scowling.

"Guess not." Chat Noir said with a smirk.

Without any hesitation, Dark Chaos charged for Chat Noir.

"Chaos Control!" Time slowed down around Chat Noir as soon as he shouted the magic words.

Because of the emerald's magic, Dark's movements were reduced to that of a moderate jog compared to the one holding the emerald, who was unaffected by it. Using this temporary chronological anomaly as an advantage, Chat charged at Dark Chaos and using his bo staff, landed several hits on him. He spun his staff while moving it side-to-side, hitting Dark Chaos in the face twice. He then swung his staff around in a 360-degree circle, parallel to the ground and smacked Dark in the side. Dark Chaos was, once again, thrown off of his feet by the attack.

Chat Noir then jumped up, preparing to deliver a drop attack onto Dark Chaos; however, just as he was about to descend upon him with his bo staff, Dark, using his own super speed, quickly looked up and noticed the oncoming attack. Dark Chaos had to use even more speed to move his hands to propel himself out of the way. Chat quickly realized that he had missed his target, but he didn't realize that his target wasn't finished. As soon as Dark Chaos landed on his feet, he exclaimed something quickly; that is to say, he exclaimed at a less than leisurely pace.

"Chaos Control!" And just like that, the time distortion ended.

While the people were trying to figure out what had just happened, some of them were recording what was happening with their phones, and others were starting to quickly vacate the area so to avoid getting hurt. Dark Chaos then charged at Chat Noir again and delivered an uppercut to his gut, knocking the wind out of him. The attack sent him flying a few feet away, into the air. Dark Chaos teleported to where he would end up in mid-air and prepared to side-chop him away when he suddenly felt more pain surge through him and quickly grabbed his abdomen. Chat crashed into Dark, making them both fall; fortunately for Chat Noir, Dark Chaos managed to, unintentionally, cushion his landing.

Chat bounced off of Dark Chaos, and then continued to do so about three more times while **Dark** ended up with his back digging into the ground. Chat Noir's bouncing soon turned into a roll before he managed to summon the strength to use his bo staff. He dug it into the ground to act as an anchor, aiding him in slowing down and regaining his footing. Chat figured that if he were to just use chaos control again, then Dark Chaos would just interfere. He needed some other way to deal with his speed. Then he remembered when Shadow explained that the emeralds powers were capable of more than a miraculous. He thought back and remembered all of the things that he saw him **do** with chaos energy and then got an idea. While Dark Chaos was getting back on his feet, Chat Noir held the emerald firmly in both hands and focused, remembering the spell that Shadow used to replenish his miraculous' power.

"Chaos Surge!" Chat Noir shouted just as Dark Chaos finally got back to his feet, blue light shining from the emerald.

Dark turned around and saw the emerald's power shining. Then, Chat Noir's body was surrounded by a blue aura with most of the aura gathering around his feet and hands. Dark Chaos didn't want to waste any more time, so he charged again, only for Chat to sidestep out of the way at the last minute, jump up while spinning horizontally and deliver a kick to the back of Dark Chaos' head. Once again, Dark Chaos was sent flying.

Dark Chaos bounced across the ground with a lot of force. When he finally stopped rolling, he got to his feet, his body aching even more now, and his intolerance growing by the minute. Chat Noir closed the distance between them by dashing forward at extreme speeds. Dark Chaos sidestepped out of the way just in time and followed up by punching Chat Noir in the face, but Chat successfully blocked it by grabbing his fist. Chat Noir then returned the favor with his own fist which Dark Chaos easily grabbed. On a normal day, Shadow could easily over power a novice using an emerald's power; unfortunately, today, Shadow was "sick", so now he was a little bit "handicapped". Still, despite his "illness", he would not let anything stop him from taking Chat Noir down.

"You think that just because you have a chaos emerald, you're suddenly invincible?!" Dark Chaos said to him. "You're no different from Baker!"

"I may be an amateur when it comes to _your_ world's magic," Chat Noir responded, "but I've learned enough this past week from watching you!"

Chat Noir threw Dark Chaos' fist away from him and drew his arm back. Dark Chaos did the same thing as Chat. Their fists met in the middle. Thanks to the increase in power from the emerald, Chat Noir was able to meet his punch with only moderate pain; unfortunately, the moderate pain seemed to be enough to make him flinch a little. Dark Chaos then threw Chat's hand away and then quickly grabbed Chat's wrist with _his_ newly freed hand and spun around, pulling his fist away as he pulled him in to deliver a hard kick to his face. _This_ time, **Chat** was sent flying, but Dark teleported so that he could spin-kick Chat in mid-air and send him right into the ground. He then dropped, ready to plunge his shoe right into Chat's gut, but Chat Noir was able to open his eyes in time to see this coming and roll out of the way, leaving Dark Chaos to leave a small hole in the street, surrounded by plenty of cracks.

As he rolled to safety, Chat Noir moved across the ground until he was back on his own two feet and then charged straight on for Dark Chaos, once again. With his newly increased speed, he was able to hit Dark Chaos before he could react. First, Chat jumped up and kneed him in the face, then he used to bo staff, hitting Dark in the face, sides, arms and head several times. With Dark Chaos partially dazed from the attacks and groaning from his illness, Chat Noir wasted no time. Supporting his entire body suspended from the ground with his bo staff, positioning himself in a way that his feet were aimed right at Dark's face, Chat Noir launched himself and… well, you can probably imagine what happened.

* * *

"Oh no!" Shouted Marinette as her boyfriend and the boy whom she cared for deeply flew off on a magical (miraculanium [fake metal-alloy name]) stick.

"We have to go after them, right, Marinette?!" Exclaimed Tikki only to notice that her holder was silent.

Tikki looked at Marinette and saw how worried she looked. Tikki called her name again and this time, she responded.

"Huh?! Oh, right!" Said Marinette, but then she remembered something.

* * *

As Chat Noir's bo staff propelled them through the air, Dark Chaos reached and grabbed Chat's ankles. He then started swinging his legs and grabbed onto Chat's neck with them. Using the jets in his shoes, he shot himself and Chat Noir away from his staff, burning Chat's face in the process. Dark Chaos tried to use his own strength to reposition himself and Chat so that _his_ face would be first to hit the ground; unfortunately, that did not happen. Instead, they kept moving around and around until Dark Chaos' pains caused him to finally release Chat Noir. While Dark Chaos fell onto the roof of a building, Chat Noir landed on a flower shop awning which cushioned his landing before rolling off of it and onto the sidewalk.

Dark Chaos arose to his feet and looked down to where Chat Noir was. He eyed him with scorn and beat his own ribcage hoping to fight off his pains with pressure and more pain. His nails were starting to rip through his gloves and his teeth were starting to scratch the inside of his mouth. Dark backed up a few feet and then ran at the edge. He jumped up and over the edge, loudly yelling while holding his fists above his head as he eyed his target, Chat Noir. Hearing Dark Chaos' voice, Chat turned around and saw him coming for him. Fast to act, he back flipped out of the way, letting Dark Chaos smash the ground where he once stood, creating a crater in the ground. The force of the impact was so great, it was enough to completely trash the outdoor display for the flower shop and break the windows.

Dark Chaos looked up and saw his opponent. The two of them charged at each other once more. Dark Chaos jumped up to deliver a downward punch, but Chat Noir evaded it by sliding underneath him. Dark Chaos hit the ground and saw Chat run for something when he turned around, so he naturally ran after him. Once he was close enough, he went for another downward punch after jumping, but it was blocked by Chat Noir's bo staff, which was the reason why he ran away. Dark Chaos continued his assault with a few more punches and kicks; all of which, thanks to Chat Noir's speed boost, were blocked by Chat's bo staff. Chat then spun around and wacked Dark Chaos upside the head, making him back off a bit.

Dark Chaos snarled at his misfortune and the two of them continued to attack one another; both continuing to only be able to land a few hits at a time on each other. After a while of trading blows, some changes suddenly occurred. Chat Noir's blue aura started to fade. Dark Chaos smiled maliciously at this; however, this was interrupted by even more pain. Without hesitation, Chat whacked Dark's jaw with his bo staff and continued hitting him, hoping to knock him out before the pain subsided enough that he could bare it. He jumped up and brought his bow staff down on Dark Chaos, but Dark soon recovered and then grabbed his staff just before it could make contact with his face. Dark Chaos swung the staff over his shoulder and slammed Chat Noir into the street, back first. The ground broke from the pressure of an impact so great that Chat could feel it through his suit. Dark Chaos would have continued, but his pains quickly returned.

"_(pants)_ So much for…" Chat started talking as he panted while getting back on his feet, "_(pants)_ 'The Ultimate… _(pants)_ Lifeform'!"

Dark's eyes widened as his rage grew.

"**That's**… **it!**" He said darkly. "Chaos Spear!"

Dark Chaos waved his hand and from it came several glowing spears; however, unlike his usual chaos spears, these were red and looked like they were made of fire. At first, Chat thought that he might be able to block them, but remembering all of the physical stress that his body had already gone through, he quickly changed his mind at the last minute and tried to use his bo staff to get away. Unfortunately, he only managed to reach a few feet from the ground when the spears finally hit the road. Instead of piercing the ground, the spears **exploded** on contact with the road, one after the other. The force of the explosions was powerful enough to blast Chat Noir off of his bo staff, and when he landed, he hit the ground hard enough to bruise his body even more.

Never had Chat Noir ever been beaten this badly. Once he had finally lifted his head up, he saw another red spear. Chat tried to block it with his staff, but instead, he was blasted back a few feet. When he recovered from the attack, he saw Dark Chaos approaching him, his clenched fists glowing green. Chat reached for the emerald, but found that he didn't have it anymore. The blast from the chaos spears must have blown it away. Chat Noir knew that if just **one** of Dark Chaos' fully powered chaos attacks were to hit him directly, it would most likely lead to his defeat… or worse. So, using whatever strength he could muster, he forced himself to his feet.

"Cataclysm!"

Chat Noir raised his right hand up as dark energy built up in his palm. He closed his hand, allowing the destructive, magical energy to be absorbed into it. Chat Noir never used his Cataclysm attack on a living creature before, but still, he knew that something needed to be done about Dark Chaos. He was too powerful, and with his mind being as clouded as it was at the moment, there was no telling what he would do next. Chat Noir just hoped that it wouldn't kill him. Chat turned to face Dark Chaos. Dark stopped when he saw Chat Noir's hand filled with miraculous magic. His power was meant to destroy anything he touches, but Dark Chaos wasn't a normal living creature. Still, there was no telling what kind of damage that attack could cause him.

Chat Noir approached Dark Chaos. Dark Chaos knew that he was definitely faster and stronger; unfortunately, his sudden illness pains had once again returned to keep him handicapped. Dark Chaos needed a new plan. And that was when he looked at his wrist. He didn't bother thinking it over for he didn't care about the outcomes, he just wanted to end this. Dark Chaos grabbed one of his golden rings and removed it. The second he did this, his body pulsed with pain and power. He focused it into his hand and it erupted, covering his hand with a green aura that was shaped like a monstrous claw. Chat Noir stared down Dark Chaos and Dark Chaos stared back. They both subconsciously growled at one another and then sprinted for each other.

"CATACLYSM!" Chat Noir roared, reaching forward with his hand that was bubbling with destructive magic.

"CHAOS RIPPER!" Dark Chaos roared, reaching forward with _his_ hand that was enveloped in chaos magic, using an attack that he had **just** made up on the spot.

Their attacks met in the center and they erupted chaos and miraculous magic. The two different forms of power spread around like long, arcing bolts of black or green lightning, resembling a Tesla coil. As a result, the alternating currents of green and black energy left pit-like trails as they smoothly moved across the ground and even up the walls of buildings. This continued until there was a great burst of energy. As the smoke cleared, Chat Noir could be seen lying face down on the ground, and his bo staff was lying right next to a red and white shoe. Dark Chaos reached down and picked it up.

"This is what happens when you decide to do battle with the Ultimate Lifeform."

Dark Chaos approached Chat Noir, holding onto his bo staff, filling it with chaos energy, but then, something happened. The emerald-green chaos energy suddenly turned red as it filled with darkness brought upon by Dark Chaos' wicked intent. As he walked, the red dark chaos energy had turned the bo staff into a long, red chaos spear. Chat Noir noticed this and tried to push himself up, but ended up falling back onto his rear. Once he was close enough, Dark Chaos pressed his foot into Chat Noir's torso, forcing him down onto his back to make sure that he didn't move.

"Now, I think it's about time I permanently shut that fat mouth of yours, Chat Noir." Dark Chaos held the spear in both hands and raised it high above his head.

_**ZIIIP**_

_**WHHIP**_

Before Dark Chaos could finish Chat Noir off once and for all, something suddenly wrapped around Dark Chaos' wrists.

"Both of you, **stop**…!" Ladybug's voice echoed throughout the area. Dark Chaos and Chat Noir turned their heads to see her standing behind them, holding the string of her yoyo, which was currently tied around Dark Chaos' wrists. "Please, stop." She said again in a calmer tone. Ladybug then raised the blue emerald that Chat had dropped above her head.

"That's!" Said Dark Chaos and Chat Noir when they saw the emerald.

"Please, just… take us somewhere private. Chaos Control!"

The energy from the blue emerald then began to spread until the entire area around the three heroes was covered in a blue light.

_**VOIP**_


	2. Chapter 2

In an instant, they disappeared from the street and reappeared somewhere more private. Dark Chaos looked around and quickly recognized where they were.

"The top of the Eiffel Tower." Said Dark Chaos, in regards to how specific she could warp on her first try. "Impressive."

"Shadow, you have to stop this, **please**!" Pleaded Ladybug.

"And just what makes you think that you talking to me will make me stop?"

"Because I know you." Ladybug took a moment before beginning her next sentence. "Shadow, please… help me. Help _me_ help _you_." Her face had flashed into Maria's, once again, and then back to Ladybug's by the end of the sentence.

Dark Chaos' eyes widened and then he looked around himself. He saw Chat Noir underneath his foot, completely exhausted. He then saw Ladybug… he saw **Marinette** looking at him with worry. Shadow's heart began to calm down as it filled with grief. The energy changed color and receded from the bo staff as he dropped it. Then all of a sudden, Dark Chaos' head started to ache severely. He grunted and shouted in pain as he backed away from Chat Noir. He seemed to be in even more pain than ever. His fingernails receded but not quite back to normal size, just yet. Dark Chaos fell to his knees and started panting as most of the pain left his body.

"I _(pant)_… I didn't know… I-I didn't **mean**…" Dark Chaos turned to see Chat Noir struggling to stand up, only managing to get to his knees, and then looked up at Ladybug again. "I'm sorry."

Ladybug dropped to _her_ knees and wrapped her arms around Dark Chaos.

"It's okay… it's not your fault," she then released him, stood up, and stepped back. "but could I have a moment with Adrien?"

She looked at the injured Chat Noir with a different level of worry. Dark Chaos only managed to turn his head partway around before wincing and turning back.

"Of course." He said with tightly shut eyes.

Ladybug walked past Dark Chaos and over to Chat Noir. She kneeled down before him, took his hand and then held up the chaos emerald.

"Chaos Control."

_**VOIP**_

With the two super heroes gone, Dark Chaos was left alone at the top of the large piece of Parisian history. It was at this moment that his body was overcome with unbearable pain. He grabbed onto himself and scooted back against a wall, groaning, moaning and grunting all the while. Dark Chaos then took off his mask and removed his hood, and just laid there for the next eight to ten minutes, hoping to wait out his suffering. During that time, Shadow had decided to reminisce, hoping to distract himself by looking at some pictures saved onto his hard drive in his red wrist plate. As he was looking at his collection of photos, he did not hear the sounds of warping followed by soft footsteps. It was Marinette, no longer in her superhero costume, nor was she accompanied by Tikki. She walked up next to him as he was trying to take his mind off of the pain that he was feeling.

Once Marinette was close enough to him, she decided to take a closer look at the holographic image that was being projected from Shadow's wrist. It was closely similar to the picture that Shadow had shown to her and Tikki before, only _this_ one was slightly different. In the front, stood Shadow the Hedgehog with Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega the robot standing at his sides. In the background, however, there stood a human man in a soldier's uniform. He had several medals pinned to him and he wore white gloves. He had white hair and both of his eyes were a different color. Standing in front of him and behind Shadow was a young girl, younger than Marinette. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She also wore a red sweater underneath black overalls and had matching black shoes. But the first thing about her that Marinette noticed was that she looked almost exactly like Maria, meaning that she also resembled Marinette, albeit even less so.

"Shadow?" She said, gaining his attention.

Shadow didn't even bother turning around.

"_(sigh)_ The one in the back… is my commanding officer… Commander Abraham Tower… and the girl… is my closest human friend… Hope Kintobor." Marinette hadn't even said anything and Shadow was already explaining "classified" information but was having trouble due to the pains of his condition.

Marinette looked at Shadow and then the photo.

"She… looks a little bit like Maria."

Shadow was silent, leading Marinette to believe that she had said something wrong, but then he broke the silence.

"Yes, she does… Her resemblance to Maria was… what drew me to her… I later accepted that she… wasn't Maria, but still, I stayed close to… protect her." Marinette kneeled down beside him. "Why am I like this…? I see someone who looks like her… and it's as if I… forget about everything else."

Marinette took a moment to think of what to say next.

"How close are you to her?"

Shadow smiled as he remembered.

"She is as important to me as… the rest of my comrades… my friends. Rouge acts like she only cares… about what she **wants**, but the rest of us… know better. We can tell that…she cares about… everyone else just as much. Omega may seem like a killer machine built to destroy… _(hm)_ but don't worry, he is. But past that resides his **true** soul… He actually cares about living things… that don't intentionally harm _other_ living things… Hope is a genius. She is always creating new devices… and weapons to help us fight… Eggman. And she cares about… everyone. The commander once hated me and sought to end me… but now he and I are on… agreeable terms."

Marinette smiled, pleased to see that this seemed to help him keep his mind off of his pains. In fact, he started to look better. As he continued to talk, she noticed his eyes return to just being the wrong color and the redness of his skin started to reduce in tone. Even his fingernails and teeth went back to normal.

"Do you have any other friends?" She asked.

Shadow stopped smiling when he heard this question.

"Well, I wouldn't really call them… 'friends', but I suppose they **are** acquaintances…" As he spoke, he started to go through his picture gallery and select specific pictures that contained images of the people whom he was speaking of. "The one I'd _probably_ **consider** to call friend would have to be Amy Rose… She's a… hedgehog who's usually obsessing over someone… however, one can't deny that she has true courage when put in the face of danger… She even stood up to **me** with practically no fear at all… on multiple occasions. Then there's Knuckles the Echidna… He understands what it's like to be… one of a kind. His entire race: his friends, his enemies, his family, his lover, they were all taken from him… Like me… he's alone, but he doesn't let that keep him from finding his purpose… and he still seeks to find them all and bring them home, wherever they are… And finally, there's Sonic the Hedgehog, the Hero of Mobius… He's an overconfident idiot and a total pain in my tail… but he alone has saved our entire planet from total annihilation and even helped me uncover the truth about my past… both more than once. And for that, he has my respect."

Marinette placed a hand on his.

"Feel better?" She asked him.

Shadow smiled at her, turned off his display and held on to her hand with his own.

"A… A little." He still winced in pain, but somehow, Marinette's presence seemed to help.

Marinette then wore a serious face as she spoke.

"Shadow, please let me help you."

Shadow also stopped smiling. He looked away from her.

"You still don't get it. Even _if_ I were to go to a hospital, they wouldn't know what to do with someone like me."

Marinette smiled again as she gripped his hand even tighter. He turned to face her when she did this.

"I never said we'd be going to a hospital."

* * *

Shadow was now on his belly, once again shirtless, with his eyes closed as Master Fu performed his healing mantra on him. Marinette was beside him, holding onto his hand as this went on. After over half-an-hour of healing, Shadow felt as though a large weight was being lifted off of him. His pains were subsiding and Marinette could see the skin around his eyes fade back to their usual hue. Master Fu then withdrew his hands.

"Alright, I am all done. How do you feel?" Master Fu asked him.

Shadow's eyes opened, revealing that they have reverted back to their original color.

"I feel…" he looked around and saw Marinette, still holding his hand, smiling at him, and he smiled back, "great."

"I'm glad." Marinette said before releasing his hand, standing up and then offering Shadow her same hand she was previously holding _his _with.

Unlike all of her previous attempts, he actually accepted her request, taking her hand and allowing her to help him to his feet. All that he did after finally gaining his footing was smile at her, and she smiled back at him. This would soon be interrupted when Master Fu spoke up again.

"I am sorry to say that I could not purge **all** of the dark magic plaguing your body. It seems to have merged with your own inner power, which is what probably brought about your sudden changes after you absorbed more of it from the akuma from the other night. But do not worry, whatever is left should not be a problem to you."

As he arose to his feet, his Kwami, Wayzz decided to add something.

"So long as no unforeseen… _(eh)_ issues arise."

Finally, as Fu left the room with his Kwami following close behind, he left them one last piece of advice.

"And as an extra precaution, I advise that the two of you say whatever it is that needs to be said before you find yourselves in a similar situation in the near future."

As the door shut behind them, Marinette and Shadow were left completely alone. They glanced at each other and then remembered that they were still holding hands. They both instantly withdrew their hands and took a step away from each other. With everything being so quiet, Shadow quickly retrieved his folded shirt and proceeded to put it on. The atmosphere became quite awkward. Marinette knew that Master Fu was right, so she took a deep breath, but just as she was about to say something, Shadow, now completely clothed, spoke up first.

"I'm sorry." He said without looking at her. "I should have trusted you. My… state of being was no excuse for being so rude with you. I owe you so much more now for helping me."

At first, she was in awe, and then, she smiled… and then she frowned as she looked at the floor in front of her.

"I'm as much to blame as you are. We should have talked… **really** talked about…" She paused, still finding the topic to be quite uncomfortable to discuss. Still, she knew that they needed to get it all out in the open before they could let it all go. "A-about the kiss."

Shadow felt something bad in the pit of his stomach _and_ his heart, and _this_ time he knew that it wasn't dark magic. He tried to look at her, but found the action to be more difficult than it should have been.

"I-I…" He tried to respond. "I shouldn't have… I-I couldn't…"

"Shadow!" She did not yell, only spoke seriously, but with a tone of voice that made him face her. With his eyes now on her, she looked at him with pleading eyes. "Please. Just tell me the truth."

"I-I think… I… I f-feel…" He did not know what to say or how to say it. He had never felt this way about a person before. Was it this new human body, or was it truly all _him_? "I don't understand what this is. This is all so foreign to me. When I first came here, I thought that my body and mind were just reacting to your resemblance to Maria, but now that I have accepted that you are not her, I realize that… this is more than that. Only… I don't know for sure what _this_** is**…"

"… I think…" she adverted her gaze for a whole second, "deep down, inside, you **do** know what this is."

Shadow's eyes widened at what she was purposing. He wasn't sure, to be honest, but still, regardless of this fact, he thought and thought… and then thought it over some more. He wasn't sure if it was real, but in all fairness, this _was_ his first experience with such an emotion.

"Is it… Is **this**… love?"

Shadow looked at her, hoping that she would provide an answer, and she did; however, it wasn't in the way that he had expected. As he looked into her beautiful bluebell eyes, the answer came to him with no words needing to be said, his eyes widening in surprised realization as his cheeks turned pink.

"Wow!" He said as he looked away.

Marinette stepped closer and took one of his hands into both of her own.

"Are you okay?" She said.

"I… I think so. Maybe. I… I guess I'm just… confused. I didn't even think this was **possible** for me."

Marinette then placed her hand onto Shadow's chest. Shadow looked at her in surprise as she smiled at him.

"If you have a heart, then it **is** possible."

Shadow felt his face heat up. Although his face was clearly turning red, Marinette didn't think that it had anything to do with Hawk Moth. With the two of them alone, they felt, comfortable in each other's presence. Suddenly, their eyes were closed and their faces were a mere-inch apart; however, they did not kiss. Marinette, with a scrunched up face, turned away from him. When he realized that the kiss was not coming, Shadow opened his eyes and saw Marinette looking at the ground. Although they managed to stop just before contact, they continued to hold hands.

"Shadow, I-I need to tell you something." She took a deep breath, turned to him and continued. "I am… so happy that I met you. I'm so happy that we became friends."

Shadow felt pain welling up inside of him, but it was not of the physical nature.

"_(sigh)_ I know." He glanced his eyes away as he said that. "I'm… happy to be your friend… but—"

"You wish we could be more?"

Shadow's eyes widened for a split second.

"… I… Yes." He shut his eyes for a whole second as he said his answer."_(sigh)_… I know I can't stay in this world. Mobius needs the chaos emeralds… but… you are first person in **years** who managed to encourage me to open up this much. I think… I want… I **wish** I could… **stay** here… with you."

"… Shadow, I—" Marinette paused for a second before looking into his eyes and saying what she needed to say. "… I'm sorry, but I can't return your feelings. When we kissed, I thought it was because I was falling in love again… but it was only just… a 'heat-of-the-moment' thing."

Shadow felt his heart ache, severely.

"Oh." He said in disappointment.

"Are you okay?" She asked, a genuinely worried.

"I don't know… Is… love really supposed to hurt like this?"

"Sadly, yes. I can speak from experience." Marinette then wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "But just because we can't be **together**, doesn't mean we can't still **be** together. Ever since we met, I started to care about you more and more. You mean so much to me, Shadow, and I'll always be your friend."

Despite his heart breaking, Shadow proceeded to hold Marinette in return.

"Thank you." He said, allowing a single tear to drop down his face.

It was unknown how long they were there for, but for as long as Marinette was in his arms, Shadow felt his heartache continue to lessen. Suddenly, the sound of Marinette's ringtone caught their attention. She moved one arm to pull out her phone and see who it was. After seeing Alya's face and name on the screen, they broke the hug so that she could answer it.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?! We got worried sick when you, Adrien and the Kwamis didn't come back inside! And when the Kwamis _did_ come back, are you with them?! **No**! And then Adrien comes back looking like he just came back from a fist fight because he _did_ just come back from a fist fight, and _you_ just **disappear**?!"

"I know! I know! I just needed to take care of something important."

"_(deep breath)_ Well, is Shadow at least with you?"

"Oh, um. Yeah, he's with me, but—"

"Good. So you can bring him back, _**after**_ you pass him the phone. I have a few choice words for that guy."

"Oh! Uh. Actually, we—" Shadow took the phone out of her hand before she could finish.

"Hello?" He responded.

"Listen here, tall, dark and jerky! If you think you can just beat up _my_ friend and _(krrrrsssshhhh)_"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Huh—?! _(krrrrsssshhhh)_–said—_(krrrrsssshhhh)_"

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you!" Shadow called into the phone. "Something's messing with the signal!"

It was at this moment that Marinette realized that the hand that Shadow was using to hold the phone was glowing green.

"I—_(krrrrsssshhhh)_—Hello—?! _(krrrrsssshhhh)_—Don't think that—_(krrrrsssshhhh)_"

And with that, Shadow hung up.

"I know, I know. That was uncalled for. I just wanted her to stop yelling. Seriously, she was so loud, I could hear her from here."

But Marinette did not scold him. She only took her phone back, but from the way she was eying him, she did not look pleased.

"But she's right. We need to go." Marinette said.

Shadow looked unsure about that.

"I don't know about that. After everything that happened—" Marinette cut him off by grabbing ahold of his hand.

"Mom and Dad are really worried about you, Shadow. Please, come back with me."

Shadow took a moment to think it over, but was then interrupted by the door opening. Master Fu, with Wayzz beside him, stepped back into the room holding a piece of paper.

"Oh, good. You are still here. I just remembered that I wanted to give you **this**." Master Fu held the piece of paper out toward Shadow. Shadow took the paper and examined it. Marinette leaned close to see what the paper was. "Give that to her parents. I'm sure they'll understand."

* * *

A little bit later, in Marinette's living room, Alya suddenly heard someone upstairs. She looked up the stairs just in time for the door to open.

"Marinette!" Called Alya, alerting everyone in the room.

Nino, Adrien (who was covered in bandages), Plagg and Tikki soon joined Alya at the stairs just as Marinette was coming down them.

"Where have you been?" Asked Alya once Marinette had touched the floor, sounding quite peeved.

"I'm sorry I left you guys in my room, but I had a feeling the sound I heard on the roof was Shadow and I was right." Marinette explained. "I needed him to believe that we were gone."

"Well, where is mister 'anger-management-problems'?" Asked Plagg, still mad about what had happened between Chat Noir and Dark Chaos.

Before answering, Marinette asked a question.

"Where are my Mom and Dad."

"When Adrien and Shadow started fighting, they told us to stay in your room where it was safe." Explained Alya. "When we came down, they went into the bakery to talk to the doctor before he left."

"Don't worry, nobody saw me." Said Adrien.

"The police had already left not long after the fighting started." Said Tikki. "They told the doctor to stay here until they were sure it was safe. They're probably still downstairs."

Before anyone could say anything else, Marinette walked out the door and down the stairs. When she had arrived at ground level, she saw her mother in kitchen talking on the phone.

"Okay, thank you, Officer." She said before hanging up.

"Well?" Asked Tom.

"They said they have to do damage control but will call us if they see him."

_**DING-A-LING**_

Suddenly, their attention was drawn by the bell above their bakery door ringing. And there, standing in the front entrance, was Shadow. Tom and Sabine froze as they looked at him. He also stopped for a short moment, looking at them with his brown eyes, and then closed the door behind him. He felt unsure of what to say to them. Fortunately, he didn't **need** to say anything at first, for the first thing that happened was Sabine walking up to him and hugging him tightly. Shadow was caught by surprise, but surprise quickly turned into guilt.

"I'm sorry, Sabine." He said. "I didn't mean to make you all worry. I can understand if you don't want anything more to do with me."

After Sabine pulled away, she held Shadow's shoulders and smiled at him.

"Don't be ridiculous. We're just happy you're safe and sound." She said as Tom stepped behind her and put his hands on _her_ shoulders, smiling at Shadow.

"We got really scared when the fighting broke out outside." Said Tom.

"Where have you been?!"

"I was…" Shadow took a second to think about how he should answer, "with a doctor. When you said that you were going to _call_ a doctor, I panicked. I left because… I was… afraid… that I would have to be sent to a hospital. I must have collapsed after I left the building, because I woke up with a doctor treating me."

Shadow then reached into his backpack, pulled out the white sheet of paper and handed it to Sabine. After a bit of reading, Sabine and Tom could tell that it was a real doctor's note from a real licensed physician, marked off officially and everything.

"Mild… Dih-vertical-tis?" Tom tried to read the diagnosed medical condition written on the paper.

"Mild diverticulitis." Shadow corrected. "It's rare for someone my age, but apparently that's what I have. That's why I was in so much pain. I apparently also had a fever at the time, which was the reason for my face being red. I might have caught something while I was out with Juleka the other night. The doctor said that I should be fine by tomorrow if I get some rest."

"But what about your eyes changing color?" Asked Sabine.

"Oh, yeah! Um. The doctor said that it might have been the light or something. He checked out my eyes and didn't see anything wrong with them."

Sabine walked up to Shadow and looked into his eyes. She wanted to be sure that Shadow was alright. Just as Shadow said, his eyes appeared to be back to normal. Sabine backed up. She seemed convinced enough.

"Well, I guess I _was_ just seeing things." She said.

"Well, doctor's orders. Your room's waiting for you upstairs." Said Tom as he and Sabine backed up to allow Shadow pass through.

"Thank you." He said to them with a smile.

He stepped between them but then stopped when someone finally came into view. It was Marinette, smiling at him. Shadow smiled back just as she made her way to him to give him a hug, despite already going through this. Shadow wasn't sure if it was to keep up appearances if front of her parents or if it was just because she wanted to hug him again. Regardless of the reason behind it, he decided to hug back.

"I'm glad you came back." She said to him.

"I'm glad to be back." He said to her. "And I promise all of you, I won't ever leave like that again."

Shadow then opened his eyes and saw everyone else behind Marinette. Tikki and Adrien seemed to be the only ones smiling. Shadow found this to be confusing. Why was **Adrien** smiling at him while he's hugging _his_ girlfriend? Shouldn't he be jealous or something? **Not** surprisingly, Alya looked rather peeved, and Nino and Plagg wore looks that read "I don't entirely trust you". Just as they broke the hug, Shadow finally noticed the bandages on various places of Adrien's body. This made his guilt level rise as he remembered the fight.

_**DING-A-LING**_

Suddenly, the front door of the bakery opened to reveal someone who appeared to be ready for a fight in the ring. Her yellow helm was adorned with the silhouette of a spider.

"Nora?!" Questioned Alya, now in full view. "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm here for _you_, little sis. I came to pick you up as soon as Marinette's parents called." Said the fighter girl, Nora, before leaning close to whisper something. "And I told you to stop calling me 'Nora'! Call me 'Anansi'!"

"After the doctor finally left, we decided to call your families and ask them if they could come pick you up." Tom explained.

"What?!" They all exclaimed as they all remembered Adrien, who was currently hiding from sight so to not let any adults know about his current condition.

_**DING-A-LING**_

The next person to enter the bakery was a large man who looked an awful lot like a gorilla. While all of the other children were internally worrying, Shadow had decided to lean close to Marinette and ask what was on his mind.

"Who's _this_ gorilla_?_"

"He's Adrien's bodyguard!" She urgently whispered.

"Oh." He whispered in response. "Shoot!"

As Alya was dragged out the front door by her big sister, Nino, whose ride wasn't here yet, decided to approach the bodyguard and act as a distraction.

"Uh, hey, dude!" He greeted nervously. "You here for my man, Adrien? Yeah, he's… uh, in the bathroom!"

"Oh, I'll go get him!" Said Marinette.

"No, I will. I'm going that way anyway." Said Shadow, who then leaned in to whisper something to Marinette. "I have an idea. Give me a second."

Shadow then made his way to the stairs where he saw Adrien hiding from sight on the second floor. As soon as Shadow was out of sight, Adrien started quietly talking.

"This isn't good. If anyone sees me like this, they're bound to be suspicious."

"Don't worry. I have an idea." Said Shadow.

Shadow then led Adrien up the stairs, which wasn't easy since Adrien was already in a lot of pain.

"This had better work or we're all busted." Said Plagg from Adrien's pocket.

"Shut up, Plagg. This should be good enough." Shadow said once they reached Marinette's living room.

"Good enough for what?" Adrien asked.

Shadow then reached into his pocket and pulled out the yellow chaos emerald. He cupped it in both hands and held it between him and Adrien.

"Place both your hands on this."

Though a little hesitant, Adrien did as he was told.

"Now what?"

"Now close your eyes and think happy thoughts."

"What?!" Questioned Plagg.

"Shut **up**, Plagg! Just trust me."

"Yeah, cuz' _that_ always goes well."

"Plagg!" Before Shadow could say "Shut up!" again, Adrien spoke up and then pulled out some cheese.

As soon as the stink reached his tiny nose, Plagg finally stopped talking and got straight to stuffing his face. Adrien finally had the peace and quiet to focus on happy thoughts, and Shadow did the same. He needed to summon as much positive energy as he could for this to work. As the two of them focused their happy thoughts into the gem, the magical jewel started converting their thoughts into power. But then, they suddenly heard the sounds of giant footsteps coming up the stairs. Adrien looked back at the open door.

"Don't worry. Just focus on your happy thoughts. Don't let anything distract you." As the footsteps got louder, they knew that they were out of time. "This will have to do!"

"For what?" Asked Adrien.

"Chaos Restore!" Shadow exclaimed.

Suddenly, the chaos emerald glowed bright with pure yellow light and emanated a yellow aura. The aura then seemed to climb up Adrien's arms and quickly spread throughout his entire body. Once the bodyguard was finally on the floor, he was hit with a sudden gust of wind, taking him completely by surprise and forcing him to close his eyes for a bit. Once he opened them again and looked through the door to the living room, he saw Adrien looking out a window. Adrien then turned and saw his bodyguard.

"Oh, hi! Sorry, I just needed some air."

Adrien's body was almost completely healed. His more visible cuts and bruises were healed and the pain was lessened substantially; although, they still hurt. As for the injuries blocked from sight by Adrien's clothes, the worst of them were healed enough that they wouldn't hurt so much that they would impede Adrien's movement. Adrien then followed his bodyguard down the stairs and through the bakery, only stopping to say goodbye to Marinette, who was shocked to see Adrien appear to be completely healed, even though he wasn't entirely back 100%. Still, that didn't stop her from giving him a goodbye kiss on the cheek, to which, he responded by kissing the back of her hand like a gentleman and winking at her, hinting to her that something happened upstairs.

Once he left, and Marinette's parents turned the "Open" sign to "Closed", they all went upstairs. While Tom and Sabine went into the living room, Marinette went to go check on Shadow. He appeared fine, but she still wanted to be sure. In his room, Shadow appeared to be asleep. She approached his bed and sat on its edge. As she looked down at his calm face, Marinette smiled at first, but then, her face fell, because she felt like she had lied earlier.

* * *

**FLASHBACK (after Ladybug left with Chat Noir)**

In an instant, Ladybug and Chat Noir appeared at the top of Marinette's home, where she immediately threw herself around him.

"I was so worried!" She exclaimed, holding onto him tight.

Chat Noir winced in pain, but still wrapped his own arms around her. After about half-a-minute, Chat Noir pulled away a little, not letting go of Ladybug and raising her chin up.

"That was really dangerous, Princess."

"I couldn't…" Ladybug hesitated, thinking over what she was going to say before saying it with some regret in her tone. "I couldn't just… do nothing."

Ladybug rested her head on her beloved's chest, but then Chat Noir asked a question that made her eyes widen.

"Was… what he said true?" Asked Chat Noir.

Ladybug pulled her head away and looked up at him.

"W-what?" She asked, feigning ignorance, worried that he was talking about what she knew he was talking about.

"The kiss." He confirmed.

Ladybug felt her heart sink as her fears came true before her. She said nothing and turned away from him; unfortunately, that alone was answer enough.

"I see." He said, redirecting his eyes to look at nothing.

She feared the worst as she heard those words.

"I'm so sorry!" She whimpered, clinging to him even tighter.

She felt like she was on the verge of tears.

_**BEEP BEEP**_

With everything going on, no one had even noticed that Chat Noir's miraculous had already run out of power. As soon as the final pad on his ring blinked to nothing, his suit and mask disappeared as the magic faded in a way that resembled green electrical shocks passing over his body from his head to his toes. As this happened, Plagg soon fell out of the ring and onto the floor of the balcony. There he laid, flat on his back.

"Plagg!" Ladybug and Adrien said upon seeing this.

It was at this time that the two humans broke their embrace so that Ladybug could scoop him up. Adrien leaned in close to look over his Kwami.

"Plagg, are you alright?" Adrien asked with worry lacing his voice.

Plagg propped himself up with his tendrils as he looked up at his owner.

"'Am _I_ alright'?!" Plagg, though clearly tired, asked him incredulously. "Have _you_ tried looking in mirror?! We should be asking **you** that!"

At first, Ladybug wasn't sure what he meant, but then, she looked up at Adrien and everything became clear. Even though Adrien was protected with his magic suit and chaos energy throughout the battle, he still took some damage and even more when the energy wore off. Without his suit to cover his body, this all became undeniably clear. Adrien's body was completely covered in bruises and had a few cuts and burns here and there, including his face.

"Eh. It's just a scratch." He tried to say casually.

All that Ladybug knew in that moment was guilt. If she had just stopped the fighting sooner… Why didn't she act when she saw Chat Noir throw the first punch? She shook her head; now was not the time to blame herself. Her beloved was injured and he needed her. So, with that in mind, she stood up, pulled out her yoyo and threw it up into the air.

"Lucky Charm!"

Sparkles then started to gather together around her yoyo. Banding together, they formed a red object with black spots that then landed into her hands. It appeared to be a first aid kit; the large red cross in the middle of a larger black spot on the front was the first clue. Once it was open, this was confirmed, for inside was a number of healthcare items ranging from bandages for small cuts, to large rolls of gauze for large injuries. Ladybug was about to get started when Adrien got her attention.

"W-wait!" He quickly said before reaching into his white shirt's inner pocket and producing a small chunk of camembert cheese.

Plagg immediately rushed to it and started chowing down. With that taken care of, Ladybug wasted no further time and got straight to work. After about five minutes, Adrien's wounds were all dressed and Marinette's miraculous had timed out.

"Oh, Tikki!" She said, catching her Kwami before she could fall past her hands. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine." Tikki said with a smile.

Marinette smiled before reaching into her own pocket and pulling out a macaroon for Tikki to eat. Marinette's smile disappeared when she turned back to Adrien. The two of them could hardly look at each other.

"Well, this is just so many kinds of awkward." Plagg whispered to Tikki; unfortunately, it wasn't exactly quiet.

"Plagg!" Tikki said warningly.

"_**What**_?!" Plagg questioned in confused surprise as if he was completely unaware that he was making the atmosphere even more awkward.

Pointing up with her tendril, Tikki directed Plagg's vision to the faces of their holders, which were both filled with great unease. Finally getting the picture, Plagg took the liberty of leading Tikki to the trapdoor.

"Uh… c'mon, Tikki. Let's go… inside… to **eat**. Yeah." Plagg said.

"Okay." Said Tikki.

They phased through the floor, into Marinette's room and out of sight… and leaving their snacks behind. Completely out of consideration, Adrien took the liberty of opening the door and swiping the food through it and onto Marinette's bed before closing the door again. Once again, no one said a word. Marinette wanted to say something; to tell Adrien that the kiss meant nothing and that she only had feelings for **him**. Unfortunately, she knew far too well that it wasn't true. Not only was the kiss real, but also the feelings behind it… from both Shadow _and_ her.

Adrien was also stumped as to what to say. He didn't even know what to think. He had always trusted Marinette because she had never once shown any signs of disloyalty until now. Still, someone needed to say something. So, despite knowing full well that it was a bad idea, Adrien decided to try playing "Chat and mouse".

"You know; I always knew there was something **shady** about that guy." He joked with a smirk on his face. "Although, it makes sense how badly he wanted _you_, Bug-a-boo. Who wouldn't? You're the purr-fect catch for this cat. I guess that "Spikey" also had a **soft** spot for you, but having _me_ around must've made him** green **with envy. Totally **red** in the face."

"Stop it!" Exclaimed Marinette, realizing what was happening. "Please… I-I know what you're trying to do, but joking around doesn't change anything… I… I-I… I cheated on you… a-and… I'm sorry! This is all on me! I should have had more self-control! There's nothing either one of us can say or do that can change it or make it better."

As she spoke, she started to cry.

"_(sigh)_ You're right. Nothing can undo what you did." Marinette could feel her heart sinking deeper within her as she lowered her head to hide the tears that ran down her face. "But you know what? I forgive you."

Marinette's eyes shot open when she heard this. She looked up at him in surprise.

"What?! F-forgive me?! Why?!"

"Oh. You know I could never stay mad at **you**, Princess."

"B-but… I…"

"We all make mistakes. But let me ask you something…" He looked Marinette straight in the eyes and asked. "What am I to you?"

"Adrien. You're the man of my dreams. I love you so much, it hurts sometimes. I… I can't imagine my life without you in it." She couldn't help smiling at her beloved as she expressed her feelings.

Adrien then held her face in his hand causing her to hold onto it as it gently touched her cheek.

"And _I_ feel the exact same way about you," he kissed her nose, making her giggle, "my beautiful Love-bug."

Marinette then found herself throwing her arms around Adrien and kissing him. He winced in pain, but managed to control his actions for he didn't want her to stop. He then gently held her in his arms before they both broke the kiss and the embrace.

"But Shadow." Marinette felt surprise at the mention of his name and pulled away, worried of what would come next. "What is _he_ to you?"

Adrien did not look at her with anger, spite, worry, or even any emotion at all; however, his tone sounded as though he seriously wanted to know what her feelings for the "alien" boy were. Marinette didn't know what to say at first, but she did know one thing; for the first few years of them working together as partners, she was never fully honest with him, making him question his trust in her on multiple occasions. Now that there were no more secret identities among their group, she knew that she could not keep any more secrets from him. And with everything that happened, she knew that she couldn't keep anything secret or deny any truths, even from herself. So she closed her eyes, thought of Shadow and opened her heart.

"I-I…" Adrien waited apprehensively for her to finish her sentence. "I'm… in love with him, too." Marinette started to recollect her past experiences involving Shadow. "At first, I was just interested in him because he saved me. Then I wanted to get close to him because I wanted to help him, but the more time that we spent together, the more that he started to open up to me. As we spent more and more time together, we started to know **more** about each other and we became… closer. Because of this, my heart feels torn between you two."

She opened her eyes and found that Adrien's face was no longer looking directly at her. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but it was easier to know what he was feeling. He was sad and was lacking his usual confidence.

"Adrien, I'm still crazy in love with you…" Marinette looked at the ground between them and felt only sorrow, "but I love Shadow, too."

Marinette reached forward and placed her hands on top of Adrien's, causing him to look at her. As their eyes met, Marinette spoke with a gentle tone.

"I just… need time to figure this all out. Please try to understand."

After what felt like eternity, Adrien's hands moved so that they were now holding onto Marinette's.

"I… think I **do** understand, Marinette." Adrien spoke with a gentle tone and a smile on his face. He then gave her a kiss on her cheek. "I love you so much. And… all I want is for you to be happy. Take all the time that you need. I'll be here, always beside you, waiting to hear your answer." He adverted his gaze but kept on smiling. "Even if it's not the one I want to hear."

Marinette smiled, held his head in her hand and moved it so that she could kiss his forehead.

"You just keep giving me more things to love about you." She said.

"Well, whatever helps my chances." He half-joked, making her laugh. "I'd better go back inside and make sure that Plagg and Tikki aren't worrying Alya and Nino too much."

"_(giggle) _Yeah… And I better go and tell Shadow… what I told you."

"Right."

And so, they both turned to face opposite directions. As Adrien approached the trapdoor, Marinette walked over to the edge of the balcony and pulled out the chaos emerald. The last thing that Adrien heard from her were the words:

"Chaos Control."

Followed by the sound of someone warping through space.

_**VOIP**_

* * *

As she continued to look at him, she felt like there was a war going on inside of her heart.

"I'm sorry." She said to him. "I wish I could have been honest with you, but… I was just being selfish."

She caressed his smooth-skinned face and moved some of his spikey black hair. Then she leaned in and kissed him. As she pulled back, she felt a tear fall down her face.

"I can't ask you to leave your life behind just to see what happens. I love you too much to be that selfish."

"Marinette?" The soft call of her name alerted her too late.

She turned around and saw her mother standing in the door frame, holding a bowl of heated soup.

"Mom!" She exclaimed, but quickly shut her mouth.

Shadow stirred a little, but he didn't seem to wake. Marinette released a sigh of relief, but then her mother walked up beside her and placed the soup on the nightstand.

"I guess Shadow isn't the only one having a hard time." Said Sabine.

"How long were you standing there?" Marinette asked.

"Long enough." She then placed a hand on her daughter to guide her as they walked. "We should let him rest. Maybe he'll eat later when he wakes up."

Marinette followed her mother out of the room and closed the door. Little did she know that when the door closed behind her, Shadow's eyes slightly opened, glancing in the direction that she left from. Marinette was later sitting on her couch in the living room next to her mother.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Sabine asked with a comforting voice.

"No, Mom. I feel torn." Marinette answered. "What should I do?"

Sabine sighed.

"I'm sorry, Honey, but I'm afraid the best I can do is say…" Sabine looked her daughter in the eye and gave her a gentle, comforting smile, "that you are an intelligent girl, but you also have an amazing heart. Just trust your heart and you'll find the answer. I'm sorry. I wish I could do more for you."

Marinette, despite not finding the advice helpful, embraced her mother.

"It's okay, Mom. Thanks anyway."

So, with that said, Marinette got up and went to her room.

"Your mom is right, you know." Said Tikki once they were blocked from view. "If you trust your heart and your instincts, then you'll never go wrong."

Marinette smiled, took the little Kwami into her hands and kissed her head.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Marinette was helping her mother make breakfast while the news on the T.V. spoke of the cleanup of Paris following the fight which broke out between Dark Chaos and Chat Noir.

"Marinette, could you set the table?" Said Sabine.

"Okay, Mom." Marinette said, taking the plates from the kitchen counter.

What she didn't notice was that when she removed the plates from the counter, she had accidentally knocked over a rolling pin and it fell onto the floor. After turning around and making her way towards the table, plates in hand, she ended up accidentally stepping onto the rolling pin.

"W-whoa-a-AH!" She exclaimed as she fell back, throwing the plates up.

Before she knew it, there was an arm beneath her back, keeping her from falling all of the way down, and she was looking up at Shadow's face, which was only on _hers_ for a second. Shadow looked up and saw the plates and food beginning their decent. Shadow quickly grabbed a plate and used his heightened speed and reflexes to catch every single scrap of food before it could hit the ground. To literally **top** it all off, when he had caught the second plate, it had landed face down, thus making it resemble a lid on top of the first plate of food. Fortunately, nothing broke.

* * *

Just a subtle reference.

* * *

With that crisis adverted, Shadow stood up, helping Marinette regain her footing in the process.

"Oh, Shadow!" Exclaimed Sabine in surprise to what had just happened before changing her tone to thankful. "Thank you so much. You're a real life-saver."

"Yeah, thanks." Marinette said, giving him a quick hug.

"You're welcome." Shadow said with a smile as she let go, but his smile only lasted until he turned to the plates in his hand, which he then placed back onto the counter. "Unfortunately, I'm afraid I couldn't save your breakfast."

"Oh, it's okay." Sabine reassured. "There's still plenty of food left. Shadow, could you help Marinette set the table?"

"Of course." Shadow agreed as Sabine handed him and Marinette a single plate each.

While Sabine cooked, Marinette and Shadow set the plates on the table.

"I hope you slept alright." Marinette said.

"I slept fine. I'm feeling much better now." Shadow assured.

"I'm glad."

They smiled at one another before Sabine interjected.

"I'm glad, too, but I don't think you should be out of bed for long. You can eat with us, but then I want you back in bed. You need your rest."

Shadow did not argue. He simply agreed with the terms and sat down next to Marinette. Soon later, once everyone was seated and began eating, Tom brought up an issue that they had all forgotten about.

"Shadow, didn't you say that you were only staying in Paris for a week?"

Shadow and Marinette froze, unsure of how to answer.

"Uhm… Yes…" Shadow took a bite of his food, hoping to think up an excuse before he swallowed. "_(gulp)_ Actually, I was supposed to be on a plane home yesterday. Unfortunately, thanks to my… er, current situation, I'm afraid I won't be able to go home just yet."

"Oh, no!" Said Sabine. "We're so sorry! Maybe if we call your old school—"

"It's okay, Sabine. So long as I keep up with my education… and perhaps a mailed report from Mr. Damocles, I'm sure everything will be fine. My only concern is that I'll need to keep living here until I… um, feel better and… buy a plane ticket home… I don't want to take advantage of your kindness after everything that you've all graciously done for me."

"Shadow." Sabine said sternly. "We have already agreed to take care of you when you first asked."

"A few more days, weeks, or even **years** won't make a difference to _us_. We're happy to have you here." Said Tom.

Shadow felt something filling up inside of him, and it wasn't the delicious food. He felt gratitude toward the Dupain-Chengs for their hospitality and willingness to continue putting up with him.

"Thank you." Shadow said with a smile. "You have no idea how grateful I am to have met such kind and generous people such as you. I truly don't deserve it."

Sabine felt a tear in her eye, which she quickly wiped away.

"Well, if you kids are done eating; Shadow, you should get back in bed, and Marinette, you better hurry before you're late again." Said Sabine.

Marinette's smile vanished and was replaced with a worried expression.

"Oh no! What time is it?! I've gotta go!" She then immediately ran up her stairs, leaving Shadow confused.

"Um, isn't it Saturday?" He asked.

"It is, but she said that she had to meet with her friends today about something important."

"Are you really okay with that? Especially considering… what happened yesterday?" Shadow felt guilty about what had transpired between Dark Chaos and Chat Noir.

"They'll be at Alya's house with her older sister there to watch them. I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Besides, Marinette's a smart girl." Said Tom. "She always knows to avoid dangerous situations."

"_Hmph_."

"_You only say that because you never __**see**__ her near the situations. Only Ladybug._" Shadow thought.

"If you say so." He then said before getting up and picking up the plates. "But before I go back to bed, at least allow me to help clean up."

"No, Shadow!" Sabine said sternly. "Tom and _I_ will handle the dishes. _You_ get back to bed, please. You need rest."

Shadow, rather than argue, immediately put the plates down and apologized before making his way to his room. As soon as he arrived at his door, he heard the other open. He turned and saw Marinette come through, now freshened up and ready to go.

"Marinette." He said, gaining her attention.

"Oh, Shadow." She said to him.

"You look nice." He said with a smile and blush.

Marinette paused for a second and then looked away, blushing as well.

"Thank you." Suddenly, her eyes widened before she started shaking her head. "I mean, thanks, buddy! Well, I've gotta go, bye~!"

As she quickly left, Shadow couldn't help but find her behavior to be odd.

"'_Buddy'?_" He mentally questioned before entering his room.

Shadow laid on his bed, thinking. At first, he thought about Marinette's odd behavior, but then shrugged it off. He then started thinking about her in general. As he did so, he didn't notice the red (with some black) blur whizzing past his window. As soon as he realized just how much time he was spending thinking about Marinette, he immediately shook the thoughts out of his head.

He tried to think of how he was going to handle himself if he had to stay in this world for longer than over the weekend. He had already made it so that if Mr. Damocles were to send any messages to the fake school that Shadow didn't attend, the messages would automatically be sent to his wrist plate, but that didn't change his current situation. Shadow had estimated that it would only take him a week tops to find the chaos emeralds within a single city; however, do to what he had been forced to endure, this was no longer the case. He still needed to find the seventh emerald, and he couldn't do that by staying in bed.

Shadow straightened up and reached into his pocket. His eyes widened. He then reached over the side for his backpack. He paused for a split second and soon lunged at the ground to look under his bed. He couldn't find it anywhere. His backpack was gone. The **chaos emeralds** were gone! His first thought was to tear the room apart, looking for it, but then he stopped and tried to think back to the last time he had it. It was when he talked to Marinette on the roof, but then Chat Noir showed up and—! Shadow wasted no time. He quickly looked out the door and saw no one. He then focused and then teleported to Marinette's room. Shadow used his speed look around the room, then the roof, and then around the building, all without being seen.

He returned to the balcony to think. He left his backpack with Marinette when he went to fight Chat Noir, meaning that it either had to be somewhere nearby or…! He then teleported to the stairs leading to Marinette's room and looked around. Seeing that the parents were nowhere in sight, Shadow zipped to the phone but then remembered that he hadn't learned anyone's phone number. He started looking around for a phone book or a physical contact list or anything that would work. He found nothing. He was out of options. He **needed** to get his backpack back. So, after teleporting to his room and making preparations, he teleported to the balcony and used the rooftops to make his way across town to Alya's.

* * *

Marinette pulled the zipper and opened the black backpack. Inside, all that they could see was Shadow's superhero costume, which Nino and Alya had fun examining.

"Whoa, cool!" Said Nino as he examined the hoodie.

"You really went all-out on this one, huh, Marinette?" Said Alya as she examined the mask.

Everyone was currently inside of Alya's room. Alya tried her best to listen for her sisters. She didn't want them to come in at the wrong time.

"Marinette spent hours fixing it up for Shadow after what happened. Now it looks good as new." Said Tikki.

"But wait!" Said Adrien as he lifted the pants out and looked at the bottom of the bag. "Where are the emeralds?"

"Don't worry. They're still there." Marinette reached to the bottom and pulled to reveal a secret pouch sealed with Velcro. Inside of said pouch were the chaos emeralds. "I put **that** in back when Shadow first started living with me… Uh! I mean my family…! _(cough)_ A-anyway, i-it's to hide the emeralds in case someone takes the backpack."

"You mean someone like _us_?" Asked Plagg.

"Fooled _you_, didn't it?" Asked Tikki. "See how well it works?"

"And now…" With an unsure face, Marinette reached in and pulled out the green chaos emerald.

"Woah there, girl!" Warned Alya, grabbing Marinette by the wrist. "Are you sure you want to try this?"

"Yeah. The last time didn't work out so well for us." Said Nino, remembering the giant skeleton incident.

"Shadow needs our help to get home. After everything that he's been through, I don't want him putting himself through any more trouble." After hearing Marinette say this, Alya released her with a heavy sigh. "If I can just try to do that sensing thing Shadow does to find the chaos emeralds, maybe Ladybug and Chat Noir can find the last one _for_ him."

"But are you sure it'll work?" Tikki asked out of concern.

"I have to try. Besides, if I can teleport to the Eiffel Tower, then to my house and then back again, how much harder could _this_ be?" She asked, trying to sound confidant despite how nervous she actually was. She raised up the emerald and focused on what she wanted to happen. "Well, here goes nothing."

* * *

The door opened and Shadow greeted the one who opened it.

"Hi. Is Marinette here?"

"Huh?" After a second, Nora realized who this was. "Oh yeah. I remember you. You're Marinette's brother, right? I saw you yesterday at the bakery."

"We aren't related. I just live with her and her family. My name is Shadow. Is she here or not?"

Nora found his behavior rude but decided to just give him what he wanted, hoping that would make him leave faster.

"Alya! Your other friend is here." She called in the direction of Alya's room. "He said his name is… Wait, your name's 'Shadow'?!"

"Yes. That is literally my birth name. Can you **please** just take me to Marinette now?"

Nora, finally having enough, just led Shadow to a door and told him that she and her boyfriend were inside. Shadow knocked on said door and waited. He heard clamoring on the other side and soon enough, it opened just enough to allow him to see Alya's face. She looked nervous at first but then cleared her throat and calmed down.

"Hey, Shadow~… What brings y—?"

"Where is Marinette?" Shadow asked sternly, interrupting Alya.

"She's, eh, in the bathroom." She quickly answered him.

"Fine. Then she can't stop me from doing **this**."

"Hey!"

Shadow, without warning, used his superior strength to force his way past Alya and through the door, while also **bashing** said door into Alya's forehead in the process. Shadow was too engrossed in his own objective to notice. Nino, on the other hand, was not.

"Whoa! Hey, not cool, Sha—!"

"Cram it, Nino!" Shadow warned, as well as intimidated Alya's boyfriend as he approached. "I'm just here for my backpack, so mov—! Wait. Where's Adrien? Your sister said he was also here."

Upon entering the room, aside from Alya's belongings, all that Shadow saw was Nino and his backpack behind him. Nino thought something up quick while Alya was tending to her aching cranium.

"Oh, uh, he's in the bathroom."

Alya's head shot up in urgency when she heard him. Shadow took a second when _he_ heard him.

"W-wait! What?!" He asked with wide eyes.

"H-he means the **second** bathroom!" Alya quickly exclaimed. "Marinette's in the **first** bathroom!"

"_Way to almost totally __**blow**__ it, Nino!_" Alya thought.

"_Whoops!_" Nino thought.

"You have **two** bathrooms?" Shadow asked curiously.

"Y-yeah. We do. Why are you here? And slamming doors in my face?" Alya asked him, hands on her hips.

Shadow, composure fully restored, remembered his task.

"I'm here to see if Marinette took my backpack from my room. The chaos emeralds are inside and I need to get them back."

Shadow walked up to Nino who immediately reached to pick up what was behind him. As soon as Nino held it out toward Shadow, he snatched it out of his hand.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, but I don't have time to sit around." Shadow opened it up, alerting the others to what he was going to do. "I snuck out again, and I don't want Sabine and Tom to worry, so—"

Just as Shadow reached inside to rummage for the secret pouch, Alya attempted to snatch it out of his hands.

"Whoa, what are you—?!"

"Hey!" Shadow exclaimed, pulling back. "I'm just trying to leave."

"Well you can't just take an emerald." Alya pulled back.

"Why?" Shadow grew suspicious as he pulled back again.

"Um…" As they continued their back and forth, Alya thought something over. "Because my… sisters are in the other room. If you make a noise, and they see that you're gone without a trace, they will **know** something is up."

"_Hmph._ Fine!" Using more force, Shadow finally managed to yank the bag from her grip, as well as make Alya stumble forward a bit. "I'll just leave then."

Shadow made his way to the door when Nino grabbed his arm.

"Wait, dude!" He said. "J-just hold on for a bit. Wouldn't you… rather wait for Marinette so… you can say 'hi'?"

"What?! I can't! I have to get back home before—!"

"They'll be back soon. Really. Just relax for a bit."

Shadows suspicions grew.

"Why are you trying to keep me here?" He asked, glaring his crimson eyes into Nino's soul.

Nino tried to shake off his intimidation and play it cool. That was the final straw. They **were** trying to keep him here, but why? That was when it hit him. He quickly yanked his arm free and pulled open his backpack. Alya and Nino tried to get it back, but Shadow teleported behind the both of them and pulled back the pouch cover. He then dumped out the contents of his bag. All that fell out was his superhero costume, a red emerald, a blue emerald, a yellow emerald (as he suspected), a white emerald, a cyan emerald… but no green emerald.

Shadow grew silent. Alya and Nino looked at him with worry. Alya tried to walk up to him and ask him if he was okay, but as soon as she was within arm's reach, Shadow immediately turned and grabbed on to her wrist. He knew that she wasn't there, because who _else_ would know about the secret compartment inside of his backpack? Who _**else**_ would take only one out of six priceless gems (of ultimate power)?! He pulled Alya in close and looked her right in the eyes with his own yellow ones, red flesh surrounding them.

"WHERE. **IS**. SHE!"

* * *

Someone walks down a long white hallway, passing linking hallways, doors and people in white coats. His eyes locked forward as he heads toward his goal. Eventually, he had walked up to the large doors of a freight elevator. After a ride down, he had arrived at the floor **he** rented for his own needs. He walked down the long hallway and arrived at a pair of doors. He walked on through and approached one of the many scientists standing around a large glass box surrounded by computers and control consoles. Everyone turned around as soon as they heard the double doors open.

"Well?" He asked the man whom he approached. "It's been 3 days now. Surely, you must have found something!"

"Sir!" The scientist exclaimed excitedly. "I was just about to call you. You'll be happy to know that we've finally found something."

"What?! Tell me!"

The scientist guided him to a computer monitor and showed him the readings on the screen.

"Just now, there was a massive spike in the energy output. As if it was reacting to something."

"Well, what did you do?!"

"Well, that's just it. Nothing. It just happened on its own."

"Really now." He seemed to calm down, yet still intrigued. "What information have you gathered from it?"

"Well, we were skeptical at first, but—"

"Professor, we have been dealing with superheroes and supervillains harnessing magic jewels that create matter out of thin air, destroy anything into dust and transform normal human beings into rampaging monsters by infecting them with black, glowing butterflies for nearly a year now. You have no reason to be skeptical of **anything**."

"Right, sir. Well, as I was saying; we were skeptical at first, but I now think that it might have been triggered by an outside force."

Hearing the professor's deduction, the man felt a feeling of unease crawling up his spine.

"Anything else?"

"We're still running tests. We won't know for sure until we're done."

"Then get to work on finding out as much as you can about this thing and **don't** let this jewel out of your sight! I'll be back to check on your progress."

"Of course, Mr. Agreste."

With that, Gabriel Agreste, Adrien's father, walked out of the room, leaving the scientists with what they had inside of the glass box, the purple chaos emerald surrounded by all sorts of machines and equipment. Once he was inside the lift and the doors closed, he decided to speak.

"Nooroo." He called, and upon cue, without hesitation, his Kwami appeared before him. "I'm sure that either Ladybug and Chat Noir, or perhaps that boy are on their way here as we speak. Surely they will seek the jewel that you had originally attempted to hide from me. You had best hope that those scientists find something useful before that happens if you ever want me to forgive you for your treachery."

Nooroo wanted to say something, but he couldn't, for he no longer possessed the ability to communicate at all. Gabriel dismissed Nooroo with a wave of his hand and so, with great shame, Nooroo went back into hiding.

"However, if it **is** Ladybug, surely she wouldn't dare to start a fight with so many innocent people simply doing their job." Gabriel said to himself. "That boy on the other hand is another story. I can only hope that it's the former."

The lift halted once it reached ground level and Gabriel walked out. He made his way toward the foyer only to be greeted with a familiar sight. At the far end of the hall were the colors red and black, standing out amongst the bright, pale colors. His first thought was to attempt an unseen exit; unfortunately, most of the people inside the building saw him walk past. Surely, the reason for Paris' "guardian angels" visiting such a place must be the jewel, so they were most likely asking questions related to it. Leaving unseen would warrant suspicion. Seeing it as the least suspicious course of action, Gabriel continued forward. He could hear the conversation once he had finally gotten close enough to the entrance.

"Oh, yeah! It was intense, but I'm all better now." Said Chat Noir, informing the staff of his condition after what had transpired yesterday. "Me and Dark Chaos just had a _little_ argument, but we're all good now… sorta'."

"Ladybug and Chat Noir. What a pleasant surprise." Gabriel greeted them.

"Gabriel Agreste?!" Ladybug said in surprise.

"What are _you_ doing here?!" Chat Noir.

Luckily, Gabriel thought over his lie as he walked down the hall.

"I was in my garden when I suddenly came across a strange jewel. I brought it here to ask if any experts knew of its origins, and they told me that it was some sort of power source. They told me that they wanted to find a way to harness its energy and utilize it as a clean source of power for the city, so naturally, I donated it."

"So it's _here_?" Chat Noir quickly asked.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"We need you to tell us **where** it is. The fate of Paris depends on it." Said Ladybug.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know. After I gave one of the scientists the jewel 3 days ago, they never informed me what they did with it. I came back hoping for some answers, but they told me it had been moved off-site. I'm sorry. I wish I could be of more help."

"_(sigh)_ It's okay. We understand."

"Thanks anyway, Mr. Agreste." Said Chat Noir.

With an apologetic expression on his face, Gabriel left the building. Once he was finally out of sight of the heroes, he sneered irksomely at the sudden turn of events.

"_Well, at least now I know that I have time._" He thought to himself. "_Surely, Ladybug and Chat Noir wouldn't __**dream**__ of stealing from the hardworking citizens of Paris simply trying to make a living and support their families. I just hope that they can keep that __**boy**__ in line until __**after**__ I come back._"

Just as Gabriel got in his car and drove away, someone else had just arrived, looking down at the complex from atop a tall structure. As he examined the entrance, he soon caught sight of the two individuals that he was looking for.

"So now what?" Asked Chat Noir as the watcher leaped from the building.

"I don't know. But we have to find a way t—"

_**THOOM-CRACKLE**_

Ladybug was then interrupted by the shocking surprise of something impacting the road next to her and Chat Noir. Dark Chaos arose to his feet and glared at them. Luckily, his eyes and skin were no longer off-color, meaning that he wasn't that mad anymore.

"Hello, Ladybug, Chat Noir." He menacingly greeted them.

He stepped forward and dusted himself off.

"Dark Chaos?!" Ladybug questioned in surprise.

"Please tell me that you're not still hung up on that fight." Asked Chat Noir.

"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm only here for the chaos emerald." Dark Chaos outstretched his hand. "Hand it over."

At that moment, one of the scientists had just exited the building only to stop when he caught the sight more people in his peripheral vision, look up, look to one person, look to the other two, slowly walk back in and lock the bulletproof glass doors. Dark Chaos' only response to seeing this was shaking his head.

"Dark Chaos, we're sorry we took the emerald, but we were only trying to help you." Ladybug explained. "I used chaos sense to track the last emerald to **this** location."

"You pulled off chaos sense on your own?! And it **worked**?! That's unbelievable!"

"_But only those with a link _to_ the chaos force have ever been able to pull that off. How could she—?_" Dark Chaos shook the thought from his head and focused on the matter at hand.

"Regardless, you stole a gem of unimaginable power. One mistake on your part and you would've… You could've been… I-I just can't…" Again, Dark Chaos shook his head. "Just give it back."

Ladybug sighed.

"When we decided to investigate this building, we hid it."

"You mean, you left it **unattended**?!" Dark Chaos's skin started to change color.

"Relax, it's on the roof of the other building." Said Chat Noir, pointing in the proper direction with his thumb.

"It hasn't been that long so don't worry." Said Ladybug.

"C'mon, we'll show you."

Dark Chaos took a second to quell the ache in his head before agreeing. Each one using their own means, they made their way to the building and had arrived at the roof. Chat Noir walked up to an air vent sticking up out of the roof and reached around it. When he withdrew his hand, what came with it was the green emerald. Dark Chaos approached him and once again reached out. Chat Noir willingly gave him what was rightfully his (at the moment, given the situation).

"Thank you." He said. "I'm… sorry for not trusting you. I should've known better."

"Don't forget, you're not the only one in charge of protecting magical jewels around here." Chat Noir said, holding out his hand to used his ring as an example.

With his mind reassured, Dark Chaos placed the emerald back into his backpack.

"So, like we were saying, we tracked the last emerald to this location." Ladybug pointed to building that they had just exited from. "The problem is… we have no idea how to get to it."

"_You_ don't. _I_ do. I'll go in, grab the emerald and leave." Dark Chaos said as if it were that simple.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa!" Said Chat Noir, grabbing Dark Chaos' arm before he could leave. "Really? We're back to stealing again?"

"Unless you have a better idea. What do you suggest? We walk in and ask for it?"

"Dark Chaos _does_ have a point." Said Ladybug. "That didn't exactly work out when _we _tried it."

Dark Chaos eyed the building and thought for a moment. He then held the emerald in a tight grasp and focused. He sensed the presence of chaos energy emanating nearby.

"It's definitely here. You were right."

"_Which means she really _did_ succeed in performing the chaos sense. To think a novice could do so well without a link to the chaos force._" Dark Chaos thought.

"It's still here?" Ladybug questioned, confusing Dark Chaos.

"We ran into my dad in there, and he said _he_ was the one who originally found it. He brought it here and donated it, but he said that that the scientists took it somewhere off-site." Said Chat Noir.

"They probably told him that so that we wouldn't come back to claim it. He says that they plan to use it as an alternative energy source to power Paris." Said Ladybug.

"Then odds are it's in a wide room where they can run all kinds of tests and experiments on it." Said Dark Chaos.

He looked over the building, but due to most of the windows being covered, he had no way to knowing which room it was in. He needed to get inside. It was at that moment when Ladybug reached over and gripped Chat Noir's wrist. He looked at her and saw her wearing an anguished expression.

"Chat Noir," she said, her voice full of grief, "maybe we should… just let him go in and take it."

"WHAT!?" He exclaimed incredulously.

"What?!" Dark Chao asked immediately, looking at her.

"You actually **want** him to steal it?!"

"I know it isn't the best option," Ladybug started, gently grasping both of Chat Noir's wrists, "but it's the only one we have. I mean, think about it; once he has all seven chaos emeralds, Shadow can use that 'god-like' power and go home, just like that. He and the emeralds won't exist in this world anymore and nothing else will matter, right?"

She looked at Dark Chaos for confirmation, who throughout the entire time she was talking, was looking right at her, eyes locked, focused and listening to every word.

"W-well, yes, essentially." He responded. "But—"

"Then it's settled." She immediately said.

"But I thought you—"

"I don't like it either," Ladybug had just cut off Chat Noir before he could mention what he and her talked about previously, "but… Shadow **needs **to get back home. We **have** to let him do this."

Dark Chaos thought over what she had said for a good three seconds before standing up, his head low, his face shrouded in shadow, his body positioned in the direction of the facility… of the last emerald. He straps his backpack on.

"You two should go home now." He says as he holds out the chaos emerald. "Chaos Control."

_**VOIP**_

In a flash of light, he was gone. Ladybug felt a tear drop down her face.

"H-he… He…"

"Ladybug?" Said Chat Noir.

"He didn't even… say 'goodbye'." Soon enough, more tears were running down her face.

Seeing Ladybug crying, Chat Noir could only think of one thing to do. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. She soon embraced him back, crying into his shoulder. She sniffled a bit before talking.

"W-we… we should go, before he… gets started."

Although she was crying, she still managed to use her yoyo to leave, soon followed by Chat Noir. They soon arrived at Alya's. Alya and Nino tried to apologize for failing to stall Shadow, but soon, their apologies turned into the question "Where's Shadow?", to which, Marinette replied, with tears in her eyes, "He left.". Everyone, tried to comfort her, telling her that maybe he might come back and they'll see him again in the future. That helped somewhat, but she still felt heartbroken that he just left without so much as a "goodbye", as though it didn't matter. Eventually, Marinette, Adrien, Tikki, Plagg and Nino left, the boys walking Marinette home while the Kwamis stayed hidden, but tried their best to tend to her in any way that they could. Once they had arrived at the bakery door, Marinette hugged Nino and kissed Adrien's cheek, followed by an even longer hug. Plagg also gave her a hug after Tikki suggested it, wanting to help Marinette feel better. They all said goodbye for the day and Marinette entered with Tikki in her bag.

"Oh, Marinette. You're home." Tom said cheerfully, holding a full baking sheet in each hand.

"Welcome home, dear." Said Sabine before she noticed her daughter's somber expression. "Marinette, what's wrong?"

Tom turned and also took notice. He then immediately put the trays down and went to go tend to his daughter.

"Everything okay, honey?!" He asked her.

"Mom, Dad," Marinette said as she finally looked up at her parents, "have you checked on Shadow, recently?"

They both looked at each other in confusion before they chalked it up to their daughter just being worried about him.

"Yes, I have." Sabine said. "Don't worry, he's just sleeping. Everything's okay."

Marinette said nothing. She just walked toward the stairs, ignoring her parents' questions. As she walked up the stairs, her parents following from behind, she began to increase her speed more and more until she finally reached Shadow's room. She opened the door just as her parents finally caught up to her. She didn't pay them any mind as she walked up to the bed and pulled back the covers to reveal a line of pillows, clearly arranged in a way meant to resemble a body. As she heard her parents go into a worried frenzy, saying to call the police or the like, Marinette just stood there and let her tears fall from her face.

"Um, something wrong?" Asked Shadow.

Marinette's eyes widened as she heard his voice and slowly turned around to see Shadow in a new outfit and a towel in his hands, most likely used to dry his still somewhat wet hair. As Marinette's parents started sighing in relief after just thinking that he had left, Marinette herself was laughing as she wiped the tears out of her face.

"I was just in the shower." He told them with a smile on his face. "No big deal."

Marinette then walked up to him and hugged him tightly, to which he hugged back.

"I thought you left." She said.

"Of course not. Not after last time. I promised I wouldn't ever do that again." It was then that he remembered about the parents and released Marinette from the embrace. "Oh! Um… _(ahem)_ I'm feeling much better now. Thank you…"

"Sorry about overreacting earlier. I… saw someone on the street who… looked like Shadow and… thought he left again." Marinette lied. "But now I guess I was wrong."

Her parents seemed to believe her. Shadow took a moment but then made a request.

"Tom, Sabine? If it's alright with you, I would like to make a request." Shadow felt awkward about how hesitant he felt to make such a simple request. Was **this** how a child would feel to ask something of their parents and worry that they'll say "no"? "May I… go out tomorrow?"

Tom and Sabine thought the request over. Sabine then turned toward Shadow.

"Shadow, I know you're probably feeling better," she said, "but I think it would be best if we waited just one more day before letting you out of the house."

Shadow wasn't happy with this response but he did not wish to argue.

"Just one more day?" He asked for certification's sake.

"Well, I think it would be a good way to be sure if you're back to 100%." Said Tom.

"_(Sigh)_ Alright. I respect your decision."

"We're sorry, Shadow, but as soon as we're sure that you're all better, then you can go outside and do whatever you want on Monday…" said Sabine, "after school, of course. But Marinette has to stay beside you the whole time."

"I understand. Thank you."

Suddenly, everyone could hear someone calling from downstairs.

"Hello?!" The man called out. "Is anyone here?! The sign said 'Open'!"

Tom and Sabine looked over the edge and remembered that their shop was still open.

"Be with you in a second!" They both called down the stairs in unison before rushing down said stairs.

"Marinette, make sure Shadow goes straight to bed!" Sabine called on the way down.

After Sabine and Tom had disappeared from sight, Marinette and Shadow finally decided to talk for real.

"You didn't get the emerald?" Marinette asked him.

"I thought about it." Shadow started his sentence with a frown, but it slowly became a smile as he went on. "Like you said, it was the perfect chance. But then I decided, 'I've spent a whole week here already. What's one more day?'… Or… two, I guess."

"Are you sure?"

"If they're studying the emerald so that they can use it as a power source, then they'll probably not move it out of the city. So long as it's within 'arm's reach', I should be able to take it at any time. Besides, did you really think I'd leave without telling you 'Goodbye'? Especially after everything we've been through? Plus, if I go take it **now**, then Dark Chaos will be a wanted man. _Then_ how am I supposed to pay back all of the favors that I owe?" Marinette smiled, but mostly because she was just happy that Shadow wasn't going to leave so soon and so abruptly. She couldn't help herself as she jumped up to hug him. "Since we'll be spending the day together on Monday anyway, if it's not too much trouble, do you think that… maybe you could help me?"

"Of course." Marinette didn't need to think it over.

"Great. Thank you."

They stayed in each other's arms for a few minutes until they realized what they were doing. Embarrassed, they immediately broke the embrace, blushing madly.

"W-well, I should… um…"

"R-right! You should get to bed…! Like Mom said."

"Of course, like Mo—I mean, **Sabine** said! Night'." He said waving as he walked off, completely forgetting that it was still too early to be considered "night".

"_(giggle) _Sleep well, Shadow." She responded, waving back as he closed his door.

With Shadow cut off from the rest of the world (or at least, house) by that one plank of wood, Marinette was left with her own thoughts. She knew that the odds were in favor of Monday being Shadow's "last day on Earth", so to speak, but what was she to do? Just as she was about to ascend her stairs, that was when a marvelous idea came to her mind. She rushed down stairs to see her parents working. Fortunately for her, they were never too busy to hear their little girl out.

"Mom, Dad? Can I ask you for a favor?"

* * *

Later, that **actual **night, Marinette was creating an add-on to one of Shadow's less extravagant outfits. As he was, he was currently dressed in a white shirt and pants, one of the more plain outfits that she had made due to her not having a lot of time to make any more stylish outfits. This new bit of clothing was sure to take her and Tikki half the night to handcraft, but she wanted it to be perfect and she wanted it to be special. She was so adamant about this that not only was she forcing herself to stay awake to finish this last garment, but she was also talking to her friends on her phone to plan out the whole thing. What she didn't know was that her parents were also making plans of their own.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, an online notice was sent to every family who had a child in school to notify them that all schools in the nearby area around the Françoise Dupont High School, as well as another area not too far away, would be closed on Monday due to the clean-up and repair that was needed due to… recent events. All morning Shadow stayed in the house, not being allowed to leave due to worry that he wasn't completely recovered from the "illness". On the plus side, Sabine and Tom were still around, and he found their presence to be… comforting. And the food that they made to help him recover faster was also a plus. Unfortunately, Marinette wasn't around. She said that she had a date with Adrien, which made Shadow roll his eyes when nobody was looking. Shadow would have been bored out of his mind if it weren't for the occasional book for him to read. Little did he know that Marinette wasn't actually on a date, depending on how you looked at it.

* * *

The following morning, Adrien, Alya and Nino all showed up at the bakery where they immediately asked Tom and Sabine if they could see Marinette and Shadow. After being allowed entrance, they all made their way up the stairs to the living room where they found Shadow waiting for Marinette at the foot of her staircase. At first, they all greeted him with smiles, to which he greeted back with less enthusiasm but with no less sincerity. A few minutes later, Marinette had finally descended the stairs only to be greeted with the sight of an incredibly peeved Shadow being assaulted by an equally peeved Alya.

"Do you have any idea how hurt Marinette was yesterday when you left so suddenly?! Who does that?! Jerks! That's who, you jerk! She looked practically heartbroken, and you were just taking a **shower**?! What the heck?! Did it ever cross your mind to tell her that you **weren't** leaving before vanishing in a flash of light?! _NO-O_! _You_ were too busy being dark and brooding to think about how your little stunt would make her feel! I have half-a-mind to **whack** you upside the head with your bag of magical **rocks**!"

"'Half-a-mind' sounds about right if you actually think that 'poking a sleeping **beast**' is a good idea, because believe me, he's **waking up**!" Shadow shouted so to be heard over _her_ shouting, his face already changing color.

As Alya continued to hit Shadow, Marinette rushed over to Adrien and Nino.

"What's going on?! What happened?!" She asked in worry.

"Oh, nothing." Said Adrien, kissing her on both cheeks so to greet her.

"Alya's just paying him back for yesterday." Explained Nino.

"Don't you think that's a bad idea since Shadow isn't completely cured of Hawkmoth's dark power?" Asked Tikki.

"Eh, it's fine." Said Plagg. "Want me to make some popcorn to snack on while we watch the smack down?"

"Keep it up, you little glutton, and _you'll_ be next!" Exclaimed Shadow, pointing directly at Plagg as the onslaught continued.

Marinette, seeing the red around Shadow's eyes, cautiously approached the two of them.

"Um. Alya?" She said as she closed the distance between them. "I think he's had enough?"

Alya halted her assault long enough for Shadow turn around and face her. All the while, the closest that she came to flinching was going wide eyed for a second upon him turning around. He glared at her with yellow eyes while she just stared back in unamused condescendence.

"You had better apologize, **now**." He demanded darkly, his hands erupting with chaos energy.

"I don't think _Marinette_ would take too kindly to her **best friend** getting hurt. Do _you_?" Alya asked him while also pulling Marinette in close.

Shadow paused for a moment and looked at Marinette, but then grabbed at his head in pain. After it subsided, he continued to glare at her with his red eyes.

"That _(pant) (pant)_ was underhanded." He said to her.

"Well, you can't say you didn't deserved that bit of punishment."

Shadow turned away and grimaced for he knew that she was right. When he turned back, he spoke what was on his mind.

"Why are you all even here?"

Everyone then started looking around the room, obviously wishing to avoid answering for a reason that was unknown to Shadow, but then a sound came from downstairs.

"Marinette, Shadow! Can you two come down here?!"

"Welp. That was my mom. We should hurry and go see what she wants." Marinette said quickly as she pushed Shadow out the front door.

"Alright. Alright! But I'm not dropping this!" Shadow warned before finally moving willingly out the door, soon followed by everyone else.

They all descended the stairs and arrived in the bakery where they found Sabine with her purse and Tom at the door.

"Something wrong, Sabine?" Asked Shadow.

"Oh, no." She responded. "We just have a few errands to run."

"And we wanted to know if _you_ kids can watch the store while we're gone." Said Tom.

"But I thought—"

"We know and we're sorry, but this came up last minute and we **really** need to take care of it. It's very important." Said Sabine.

"We're really sorry to have to do this to you, Shadow. But really need you kids to mind the store while we're out." Said Tom. "I promise; we'll be home as soon as possible, and then you're free to do whatever you want."

Shadow didn't like it. He felt that this would impede his task of repayments, and he didn't want to leave without making sure he paid back everyone who aided him in this world; then again, that included Tom and Sabine. He knew that this bakery was their livelihood, so perhaps running it in their stead would be compensation enough, especially since he could never be able to pay them back for **everything **that they did for him during all this time, especially after the stunt he pulled the other day.

"_(sigh)_ Alright. If it'll help, then I can stay behind and watch over the bakery." Shadow agreed.

"You won't be alone. I'll be here, too." Said Marinette.

It was at this time that Nino walked up to her and whispered something into her ear. This turned into a full blown discussion which Shadow could not figure out the purpose of.

"What are you all talking about?" He asked.

"Oh! Um… It's just…"

"We just need Marinette to come with us…" Said Nino, deciding to speak _for_ her.

Shadow's suspicions rose ever higher.

"Why?" He asked.

"Um… 'W-why'… uh…?"

"Because it's important!" Alya stated as she too walked up beside her best friend before turning to the parents. "I'm sure Shadow can handle your bakery until you come back, right?"

Alya spoke with encouragement in her voice. It was as if she **wanted** to leave Shadow alone for some reason. This theory did not go over Shadow's head as he thought over all of the possible reasons why she would want this. Or perhaps… this was all about Marinette.

"Shadow?" Sabine's voice broke Shadow out of thought. "Do you think you'll be okay on your own while we're gone?"

Despite Shadow's suspicion, he nodded to them, although, this was mostly so that he could ask a question without them being in the same room.

"Well. If you're sure, then we trust you." Said Tom.

And with that, the two of them bid goodbye and exited the bakery, leaving the children alone. Shadow waited until they were out of sight before asking his question, which was about the same time that the rest of them were about to leave.

"I know what this is all about." He said, causing them all to pause just before opening the door. "I know what you're thinking."

They all turned around toward him. While the rest tried their best to hide their nervousness, Marinette could not as well as the others.

"_Did he figure us out?!_" Marinette thought.

"This is about the past two days, isn't it? You don't trust me." They were all silent when they heard this. As Shadow continued to talk, he seemed to be scowling at no body in particular, but nothing could be further from the truth, for he was, in fact, scowling at himself. "After me running away, the fight and leaving only to end up back at the bakery, it only makes sense that your trust in me would reduce to nothing as a result. You either think that I'm too dangerous to be around or that I'm untrustworthy to keep from hurting Marinette in some way, don't you?"

"Shadow, that's not—"

"Look," Adrien cut Marinette off before she could continue, "we just can't tell you, but we promise, it's not what you think."

Shadow looked at them, and then to the display of pastries at his right.

"People say that, but… that usually ends up being a lie." He then pulled up a chair and assumed his position at the cash register. "I'll take care of things here. You all do what you need to do."

Although, Marinette wanted to reassure him, she knew that she couldn't do that without divulging the truth. Shadow wasn't stupid, so she decided to say one last thing with a reassuring smile on her face.

"I promise. This will all make sense soon. So please, don't lose faith in us."

Under any normal circumstances, Shadow would just scoff and carry on with his day, but this was one of the rare moments where the circumstance involved one of the few people who could calm his nerves with just a look. This was proven because that was exactly what had just happened. Although Shadow still feared that they were now afraid of him, or something of that ilk, the look on Marinette's face made Shadow's scowl disappear and made him second-guess himself.

"We'll be back soon." Was all Marinette could say before they all left, leaving Shadow completely alone.

"… I trust _you_." He said to her, even though she was no longer inside of the building.

Shadow thought about them for a bit, then he thought about Marinette's parents. He wondered what they were all doing. He then started to think about how the rest of his day would go with this new setback. Could he still repay his self-proclaimed debts? He then thought about the final chaos emerald and what the scientists would use it for.

"_Well, so long as the emerald is still in that lab, then everything should be fine. All I have to do is break in, get it and then it should be a straight shot back to my world._" Shadow thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, the doors to the lab burst open.

"What have you found out?!" Gabriel Agreste demanded.

"M-Mr. Agreste!" Said the scientist in charge.

"I've given you enough time and I expect results. So speak."

"W-well, we've been running tests on it and… so far, all that we could say for sure is that this thing has enough energy to power all of Paris for years."

"And?"

"And we've also tested its response to being fed electricity. By utilizing tesla coils, we have witnessed firsthand that this gem can not only **release** energy, but absorb it as well. Although, I'm sorry to say that so far, we can't tell for certain if it is safe to come into contact with the jewel or not during the certain amount of time **after** it has absorbed power."

"_And_?"

"A-and… when we tested its durability… after failing at harvesting small samples from it, we've discovered that no matter what kind of physical stress it is put under, even ballistic, this gem maintains its perfect form without so much as a scratch."

"_**And**_?"

"And… um… we… uh… can say for absolute certain that… uh… it's… it is… beryl?"

For a few seconds, both were silent.

"'Beryl'?" Gabriel repeated, causing the professor to go silent. "I give you almost four days to analyze this **rock** and the best that you can tell me is that… it's… **beryl**?! I didn't come down here for a geology lesson, I came for **results**! Something **useful**! And yet all you can say that is even the _slightest _bit helpful is that this rock is an 'indestructible' 'beryl-stone' that can be used as a 'battery'?!"

As Gabriel continued to glare and approach the scientist, the professor was far too intimidated to allow himself to be within arm's reach of his unsatisfied employer. He continued to back up until his hands were against the control console of… something.

"B-but, sir—!"

"Just yesterday, on my way out, I ran into Ladybug and Chat Noir. They were looking for the jewel."

"Well, then… perhaps they could help us? They seem more well-versed in this type of field. We as scientists know… well, pretty much **nothing** about the field of magic. Surely _they_ must be able to shed some light on—"

"Do not forget who you all work for and **why** you work! If they find this place, then it will only be a matter of time before an investigation is put in place to uncover the reason as to _why_ a lab would need to be so secret… as well as **who** all of you are. You promised me answers and in return, I would use my connections to erase all of your records. So you had better give me something more than just an 'indestructible battery beryl-stone', or I swear, you will **all** be behind bars in the harshest prison my connections can find. Am. I. Clear?"

It was at that moment that the professor's hand slipped and had ended up pulling a few switches down.

"Professor!" Called one of the other scientists.

This followed by the hum of something powering up alerted Gabriel and the professor, causing them both to back up, away from the console and see what was going on. From the outside, everyone looked and saw two large tesla coils inside of the box building up power. The switches that the professor had hit didn't just turn the coils on, but also set them to the most powerful setting.

"No. No! No!" The professor exclaimed.

He hurried to the console so that he could turn it off but he was too late. The tesla coils released bolts of electricity in all directions, some of them hitting the emerald. Luckily for everyone in the area, there were no scientists inside of the box so everyone was protected by the walls of glass. For a moment, everyone was blinded by the light of the coils' bolts. As Gabriel watched the bolts hit the jewel and saw it glow, that was when an idea came to mind. He grabbed the professor's shoulder, placed his other hand onto the console, intentionally hitting the intercom button for the room, and started to yell.

"This is descending into absolute **chaos**! **Control** this machine, now!"

In the corner of his eye, he watched the gem glow, but it was from the electricity being shot into it. It did not respond to his words. Within minutes, the power was cut but as the bolts ceased, the jewel's glow persisted. While everyone calmed down from the event, Gabriel continued to eye the jewel.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Agreste! I-it was an accide—"

"**Quiet**." Said Gabriel as he walked around the box.

The entire research team caught sight of his actions and watched him until he reached the door to the box.

"Wait!" A different scientist called out as she ran toward him, hoping to stop him from doing something dangerous.

Gabriel quickly put his hand out to stop her from interrupting him. With his hand between him and the scientist, he opened the door with his free hand and walked inside of the glass box. He looked at the gem and saw that its glow was slowly fading. He approached it and reached for it.

"Mr. Agreste, wait!" Said the Prof. speaking into a microphone, allowing his voice to become amplified by the intercom speakers in the room. "It's too dangerous! That thing has absorbed almost 500,000 joules of electricity. That's half the amount in a bolt of lightning! Touching that thing could prove fatal!"

"Humanity hasn't come this far in evolution without taking necessary risks."

Everyone in the room held their breath, even Gabriel for a second. He was afraid, but the gem's gleam was still fading. He had to be sure before it was too late. He reached forward until the emerald was mere inches from his palm. That was when he felt it, the power. It was almost as though the energy was radiating off of it. This caused all of the inhibitions that he originally had to vanish as he closed the gap between his hand and the jewel. As he held the emerald in his hand, he could feel its power as it continued to emanate from the stone, but he also felt it lessen as time went on. He then raised up the jewel and pointed it at the professor. He thought about the electricity that had just been sent into it.

"Chaos control."

Suddenly, a small, purple bolt of electricity erupted from the jewel and struck the glass. About half of a second after he saw this happen, the professor realized just what was happening and ducked behind the console in panic. The rest of the staff in the room did the same, hiding behind anything that they could find. The bolt only remained for about three and a half seconds before it finally stopped, but the echo of thunder remained for two seconds more before it too faded into silence. The small scorch mark on the glass was proof enough that it had actually happened.

The scientists all arose from their hiding places and stared at Gabriel and the jewel. With the emerald in his grasp, Gabriel couldn't help but marvel at its power. Even though most of the power it had had faded, there was still enough to scorch the glass. To think that this tiny rock not only possessed the capability to store the energy from the tesla coils, but could also release it. In fact, the blast seemed to be even slightly more powerful than the energy it absorbed. Somehow, it enhanced the power to make it even more powerful.

Gabriel's mind was swimming with ideas ranging from how to properly use this stone to further enhance his own powers to what he could do to Ladybug, Chat Noir and just about anyone foolish enough to stand against him with it. Even that newcomer, Dark Chaos could pose very little threat. With the dark thoughts swimming around in Gabriel's mind, the emerald reacted accordingly, shinning a dim light that continued to grow. Not only that, but Gabriel could even feel the emerald's power growing and even spread into him, as though the power were a part of him. Now he truly understood. The magic words were just to activate and call upon the power, but the jewel's **true** power came from its user's thoughts.

"Mr. Agreste?! Are you okay?!"

"Huh?!" Gabriel was pulled from his own thoughts by the professor's voice.

"You've just been standing there for about three minutes. We were about to call someone to help you."

It was all so clear now. Clenching the jewel in his hand, Gabriel now knew just what he had to do.

"Forgive me for startling you. I was just taken aback in awe by what we had just witnessed." Gabriel looked at the purple stone in his hand, his dark thoughts causing it to glow even brighter. "Truly this is a treasure of unimaginable potential."

Gabriel then exited the glass box, emerald in hand, and directed himself to the nearest and only exit.

"Sir, wait!" He was just about to leave when the professor grabbed him by the arm and asked Gabriel a very important question, his voice laced with nervous suspicion. "What are you planning to do with it?"

"That, professor, is none of your concern." He then turned, removing his arm from the professor's grasp so to address everyone in the room. "Thank you all. You have all done tremendous work here and have thus discovered something truly astonishing, but now I must ask that you all keep everything that has transpired here a secret!"

Again he turned to leave only to be once again stopped by the professor.

"Mr. Agreste, as you have just said; we have just found something incredible! Shouldn't we be sharing this discovery with the world?!"

"Professor, may I remind you that if you or any of your colleagues should refuse to do as I say, then I will personally ensure that you **all** will be thrown into the deepest, darkest, coldest holes that I can find. Understand?"

The professor stepped back.

"Y-yes, sir."

Gabriel opened the door and started making his way to the elevator.

"Goodbye, professor."

* * *

As the doors close behind Gabriel, another door opens allowing a customer to leave with their box of macarons.

"Come again." Shadow says to them as the door closes behind them.

After what felt like hours, even though it hasn't really been that long, Tom and Sabine still haven't returned and the customer that had just left was the only person to enter since they left.

"[I guess 'soon as possible' means something entirely different in French… or at least in _this_ dimension.]"

Shadow looked around the shop trying to find something to occupy his time, seeing as he had already finished his book and there wasn't much else for him to read aside for cook books and romance novels which weren't exactly his cup-of-tea; unfortunately, he found nothing. Never had he been so bored in all of his life.

"_Note to self: find local library or book store for some __**good **__literature. Why did I agree to this?_" He asked himself before remembering that he still owed them for offering him shelter.

"[Oh, right.]"

He turned around in his seat and leaned back against the counter. That was when he saw the kitchen. Since he had already agreed to watch over the bakery and didn't want to break that agreement, he decided that what he was thinking was better than dying of boredom. With a heavy sigh of reluctant acceptance, he got up, removed his fingerless gloves, pocketed them, dawned a cooking apron, washed his hands and got to work.

* * *

Hours passed and Tom and Sabine were finally coming home, and they were just in time to see the literal line of people arriving to pick up their orders. The line wasn't too long, mind you, but this was still quite a lot of people. The two bakers entered through the side entrance and came into the bakery through the back. There they saw Shadow boxing up desserts that appeared to be fresh out of the oven. He continued to hand each boxed creation, one by one, to the next paying customer in line, one after the other with a rather annoyed expression on his face.

"Thank you. Come again." Shadow said as he handed the next customer their order and took their money before leaning in close with a menacing glare. "And next time, please order something that was made by someone who **actually** works here."

And with that, the customer left, feeling quite intimidated and wishing that they had headed the warning previously sent to them. But hey, at least the people in line were courteous enough to move out of the way to allow them to pass by with their food.

"_(Hmph)_ Next." He announced, crossing his arms and turning his head away from the entrance that the customer exited from.

"_Part of me actually __**hopes**__ she tastes my disdain in those muffins. Why do these people want something made by someone completely __**new**__?! Tom and Sabine… and probably even __**Marinette**__ put so much hard work into everything here and these ridiculous humans have to nerve to—_"

"Shadow?" Said Sabine.

"Whoever said that, wait your turn!" Shadow warned the line but was then alerted when he heard a woman clear her throat and then felt a hand tap his shoulder. "Sabine?!" He said, turning around to face her and Tom. "I-I…"

"Shadow, what is going on here?" Asked Tom.

Shadow adverted his gaze in guilt. He then started continuing his work as he spoke.

"It all started with Nadja Chamack and her daughter. They saw me working on a cake and from there…"

* * *

It hadn't been too long when someone came in through the bakery door. Shadow was mincing strawberries when he heard the bell chime and saw that it was the news anchor, Nadja Chamack and her daughter, Manon Chamack, who was being especially active.

"Oh, hello." Nadja greeted Shadow. "Are you a new employee? I didn't even know the Dupain-Chengs were hiring."

"Actually, I'm only temporarily minding the store in their absence." Shadow informed her.

Suddenly, Nadja caught a whiff of a very delectable aroma, as did her daughter.

"Mmm… What smells so good?" Asked Manon.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific." Said Shadow.

"That delicious smell." Said Nadja.

Shadow _did_, in fact, notice a particular aroma. He turned back toward the oven where he left his cake to bake. He then turned back toward the customers.

"Oh, no-no-no! You don't want that. That was just something that I made to pass the time. It's not very good."

"_You_ made it?!" Nadja asked in surprise.

"Um…"

"It smells just like that other cake I wanted to buy from here the other day, but they sold out."

"… The other day?" Shadow questioned.

"Can we get that cake, Mommy?! Can we?! Please?! It smells so yummy!" Pleaded Manon.

"It's not even done yet. I couldn't sell it to you even if I wanted to."

"Well, then when will it be done?" Asked Nadja.

"Once it's finished, I'll still have to decorate it. So, about an hour. Maybe less."

"Then we'll come back in an hour."

"Really?! Are you sure you wouldn't rather have one of the already prepared cakes we have on display?" Asked Shadow.

"No! I want **that** one!" Manon demanded.

"Manon! You know that is **not** how you ask someone for something." Nadja warned her daughter.

"I'm sorry, Mommy."

Shadow thought this over and tried to get them to reconsider.

"Are you **sure** you don't want to reconsider?" He asked.

"You seem really keen on not selling us that cake. Are you baking it for someone else?" Nadja asked curiously.

"Well, no. Like I said, I was only baking it to pass the time, but I'm not even a real employee. You shouldn't feel compelled to purchase **anything** that I make."

"But it smells so good."

"It's smells so yummy! Please can we buy it?!" Manon said before putting on her trademark sad baby doll eyes.

A bad feeling was growing inside of Shadow's stomach. These people sounded adamant.

"Any chance I can change your mind and get you to sell us the cake?" Nadja then reached into her purse. "Believe me, money is no object."

"That isn't the issue." He explained, raising his hand up to nonverbally tell her to cease. "I'm not an employee, just a temporary attendant. It wouldn't be right for me to sell you something that _I_ made."

"Well, when you put it like that, I guess I can see your point. But wouldn't you be missing out on a potential profit?"

"I have no need for such things. I'm only doing this as a favor and that's **it**."

"But what about Tom and Sabine? If you don't sell something, you would still be losing money for _them_ by not selling what someone wants."

Shadow froze as he pondered over this subject. He didn't want **that**. On the one hand, Tom and Sabine would have done all of that baking for nothing, but on the other hand, he might end up driving costumers away and lose money for them… Same thing in the end. He didn't want that. Shadow looked down at the little girl standing at her own mother's feet.

"You sure wouldn't rather eat something else?" Shadow asked her.

Manon held her ground and refused. Shadow, seeing no other way out of this that wouldn't result in him ultimately becoming a burden in his own mind, gave in and agreed to sell them the cake for the same price as one of the other cakes. After they told him how they would like the cake to be decorated, he wrote down the order and the name of the one who placed the order.

"Thank you, Mrs. Chamack. Your cake will be ready by the time you come to pick it up."

"Thank you so much." She said.

"Thank you." Said Manon.

Suddenly, Nadja realized something.

"I'm sorry. I never caught your name."

"It's Shadow, Shadow Robotnik."

With that, they left the store. Shadow didn't feel right about someone preferring one of his _own_ creations rather than one of Tom and Sabine's, but he supposed that just **one** cake couldn't hurt.

"[_Hmph_. Whatever. It's just **one** cake.]" He said, shaking the thoughts from his mind so that he could focus on his work.

With strawberries completely minced, he then scraped them off of the cutting board and into a bowl of batter. Just as he had started mixing the strawberries into the batter, the bell chimed, signaling another customer. They saw him working and thought that it looked delicious. Although Shadow tried to get them to consider one of the other delicious options that were already made, they were adamant. Once they left, Shadow had another order taken.

About an hour later, Nadja Chamack and Manon returned to find Shadow rolling a roll cake. After he finished, he brought out their order and their faces lit up when they saw the cake before them. Manon looked so happy, she was literally jumping up and down in her excitement. After boxing it up, Nadja paid him for the cake and left him to his work. Unfortunately, he only managed to get half-way through what he was doing when the door opened. Shadow saw that it was the person who ordered what he had finished making prior to this roll, which they took notice of.

As Shadow went to go fetch what they ordered, the customer took out their phone and snapped a picture of the roll that Shadow had made, half of it cut into perfectly sized slices. As soon as Shadow finished boxing up the order of cupcakes with minced strawberries baked in (Shadow technically cheated on this by using chaos control to help him carefully arrange the strawberries in the batter so that they could make wavy designs that will reveal themselves when you remove the wrapping and take a bite), that was when the sound of a phone chime alerted him. He looked and saw the customer with their phone out in front of his roll.

"Hey!" He said, causing the customer to drop their phone in surprise.

Shadow looked at the screen and sneered at what he saw. He then looked up at the customer with a look of dark disapproval. He informed the customer that they were not permitted to take pictures of the pastries before they were sold and told them to take the post down, but the customer told him that they had already shared the picture with all of their friends. Suddenly, the phone chimed… repeatedly. They both looked at the screen and saw the numerous notifications from several other online users of the social media site the customer was currently on. All of them had pictures tagged. They looked at them and saw that they were all the same thing, Shadow's roll cake with the tagline "Créé par le nouveau boulanger de Boulangerie Patisserie."

Shadow clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He wasn't so much angry as he was annoyed and… well, displeased. He grasped his own face with one hand as he took a deep breath. With his _other_ hand, he rung up the price of the order. He then placed one hand on the counter and held the other one out to take the money. Once this was accomplished, Shadow slowly closed his hand on the money almost as though he desired to crush it into dust.

"_(inhale)_… _(exhale)_… **Get. Out.**" Shadow said darkly, giving the customer a very dark and menacing glare.

With the look that Shadow was giving them, they were all too happy to take their cupcakes and leave that place, never to come back… at least, not until the Dupain-Chengs do first… and maybe fire that employee… Maybe they should alert their social media friends about the new employee and his frightening attitude.

"_Perfect_." Shadow said sarcastically once the door was finally shut.

With that, he continued to drown his sorrows in his work. After the roll was completely cut into even slices, he covered a cake with them and glazed it. He then covered it with frosting so to hide the roll slices, making it appear like an ordinary, semi-spherical cake, later decorating it further. It was around this time that the bell above the door chimed once again; however, it was more than just one person whom entered. They asked for a roll cake. Again, Shadow tried to offer them one the already made ones, but they wanted the one that they saw on the shared post. The bell chimed again just as Shadow had finished writing down the order and even more customers came in. They were here to ask for a pastry that they had seen the other day, same as Nadja Chamack. Then even more came in to place special orders to the new baker.

* * *

"I tried to persuade them to purchase something else. Something… made by you, but… no one did. I'm sorry."

As Tom and Sabine looked around, they were reminded of just before Shadow got sick and he ended up baking so many baked goods to relieve his stress. They were a huge hit with the customers and most were disappointed when they ran out. The baker couple looked at each other and then smiled before turning to Shadow.

"Shadow, let us take over. You must have been working so hard." Said Sabine.

"We promised you that you could have the rest of the day to yourself." Said Tom as he pulled Shadow away from the register. "We'll finish up here for you. You go out and have fun."

"Are you sure?" Asked Shadow. "There're still so many—"

"_We'll _care of it. _You've_ done enough."

"Don't worry about us." Said Sabine. "Go on. Enjoy yourself."

Shadow hesitated, feeling unsure of this choice. He thought for a minute but then smiled.

"Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Sabine." He said to them respectfully.

He then removed his apron, handed it to Sabine, pulled his gloves out of his pocket, dawned them and began making his way to the exit. Sabine watched him leave for a few seconds and then thought something over. One more second later, she put the apron down beside her, went over to the cash register for a bit and then walked up to Shadow. She stopped him just as he was about to leave out the back door.

"Shadow?" Said Sabine, causing Shadow to stop.

He turned to her and then, all of a sudden, she embraced him just as any proud mother would her child. Shadow was totally confused but he did not resist.

"I just wanted to say 'thank you' and to let you know how proud Tom and I are of you." She said as she pulled away, still smiling.

"'Proud of me'? But… I'm not even your family."

She was about to say something but then shook her head.

"Don't worry about that. Here." She then handed to him what she had clenched in her hand.

Shadow was surprised to see that she had given him some money.

"I can't. It's yours." Shadow reached his hand back out, attempting to return it.

"Those were your own pastries you sold." Said Tom, pressing his palm into Shadow fingers so to encourage Shadow to close it.

"This money belongs to you." Sabine said. "Now just go on and enjoy your day."

Shadow hesitated and adverted his gaze. However, it wasn't long until Shadow relented. He smiled slightly, still unsure as well as confused, and then left through the door.

"Goodbye."

The door closed with a click. Shadow was finally allowed some time to himself… once again since that was how this all started. As he walked, he thought about what had just happened. As he walked away from the bakery, he wondered if Tom and Sabine could handle that line of costumers, but it seemed to be lessening slowly. Some of the people waiting outside were actually leaving the line _before_ reaching the door. Deciding to continue on his way, he thought of what to do. He turned and saw the school, remembering his final task before leaving this world forever. He still wanted to pay back his debts to Marinette and her friends.

The streets were empty, so he just jaywalked straight toward the school. As he did this, he began to think about what to do about his debts. He only had a few hours to pay back all of the generosity given to him. He didn't have time to think for long when he heard a familiar voice.

"Shadow!"

Shadow looked ahead and saw Nathaniel standing right there before him.

"Nathaniel." Shadow said to him.

"You're better!"

"Um… Yes. I am."

"I'm glad."

Shadow noticed that Nathaniel seemed nervous about something. Shadow thought back and remembered the last time the two of them talked.

* * *

It was the day following the night of his tour… when he kissed Marinette. His mind was so confused and guilt ridden that he didn't want to talk to anyone… not even Nathaniel. However, that didn't mean that Shadow said **nothing** to him. The final bell had just rung and he was eager to leave, but just as he was about the walk out of the door, Nathaniel walked up to him and got his attention.

"Shadow, wait!" Shadow turned around and saw Nathaniel holding several sheets of paper in his hands that were currently outstretched towards him. "I noticed that you weren't writing anything down so I took some spare notes for you."

Instead of taking the paper, Shadow eyed them and then turned away.

"Why?" Shadow asked.

"Well, I don't you to fall behind. So I—"

"I mean **why** are you even bothering?!"

"Huh?! Wha—?"

"You know I'm not going to be here for much longer, so why are you even bothering?"

"Well, because that's what friends do for each other."

"Then why are you doing this for **me**? You and I are **not** 'friends'."

It didn't take long for Shadow to realize what he had just said, but even by then, it was too late. Nathaniel walked past Shadow and dropped the notes into the trash. If Shadow felt low before, then right now, he felt as though he had hit bedrock. So hard, in fact, that it cracked. Shadow took the notes and followed after Nathaniel. He wanted to say something, but once he had arrived behind Nathaniel, his mind went blank. He didn't know what to say… So he didn't. He just casually walked beside him. Shadow's mind was a rush of emotions ranging from guilt, anger and sadness. He felt that he needed to do something, but then he saw Marinette and the others. He tried to look away and then saw Juleka with Rose.

* * *

Shadow wanted to say something, **needed** to say something.

"… I'm sorry." Shadow apologized.

"Huh?" Questioned Nathaniel in confusion.

"That day, before I… got sick. I ignored you and avoided you… but then… even worse than that… What I said to you, I… I want you to know that offending you was not my intention. I just… had some issues to work out. But that is no excuse for what I said. I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way."

At first, Nathaniel said nothing, but then, he smiled.

"It's okay." He said. "Really. Don't worry about it. Actually, I was afraid _I_ did something that offended _you_. I don't blame you for… whatever was going on. I just hope that you worked it all out. And I'm really glad that you're feeling better."

Shadow lowered his gaze to the sidewalk between them. He still felt like something needed to be said.

"Nathaniel."

"Huh?"

"I want you to know that I… appreciate you… and everything you have done to help me."

Nathaniel smiled again.

"Thank you, Shadow…" Nathaniel paused for a moment. "I may not be a friend to _you_, but… Shadow, you're a friend to **me**."

Shadow stared at him for a bit before lowering his gaze once again.

"Nathaniel, thank you." Was all he said.

Shadow was going to walk forward but then, Nathan spoke again,

"H-hey, Shadow. I was thinking… I've been looking for some… inspiration for this… comic that I've been working on… Think you can help me?"

Shadow didn't need to think about it.

"Of course."

* * *

And with that, Nathaniel led Shadow away from the school. A short while later, Shadow and Nathaniel were sitting on a bench beside the Sein. Nathaniel had his book full of comic sketches opened to a blank page.

"I have this idea for a climactic battle. I got the idea from the battle between Dark Chaos and Chat Noir the other day," Shadow flinched a little when he heard this, "but I don't want to write either of them as the bad guy."

Shadow was called to attention by this.

"Why not…?" Shadow took a moment and then spoke solemnly. "Wasn't that all started by Dark Chaos?"

"Well, he must have had his reasons. I mean, why would he help Ladybug if he was actually bad?" Shadow was taken aback by Nathaniel's positivity toward the dark anti-hero. "Maybe it a misunderstanding, or maybe it was a disagreement gone wrong, or… maybe it was mind-control."

Shadow went wide eyed at that last idea. It reminded him of when he was swayed to turn against his own allies by Black Doom and how he even managed to control him for a short time before breaking free.

"_(sigh)_ I'm much better at drawing than I am at writing."

"Well… maybe he was influenced by something from his past."

"'From his past'? Like what?"

"Some kind of external tormentor… or maybe a subconscious one. But there has to be a catalyst. Maybe…"

"Maybe he's caught in a love triangle?"

"W-what?!" Shadow was caught off guard by this.

"You're right. That's stupid."

"… No. I think that would do it." Shadow said glumly. "Perhaps whatever influenced him in the past could be triggered by emotional distress. A love triangle would work perfectly as a catalyst for that, throwing him into a fit of rage and physical aggression."

"Hey… Yeah! You're right. It _could_ work!" Nathaniel paused to think over the idea. "But how would it happen? The trigger, I mean!"

"Well, maybe it could be in the form of a voice in the back of his head? Slowly convincing him that Chat Noir is an obstacle that needs to be removed… or something like that."

"Great idea!"

Nathaniel immediately started sketching some ideas. This was when Shadow took notice of the characters that the young artist had previously drawn. He saw Ladybug, Chat Noir and a third character that seemed very familiar. This took him back to when he first discovered Nathaniel's passion for comic book illustration. This was also the day when he first learned about how Nathaniel was akumatised.

* * *

Shadow and Nathaniel were eating lunch together. Shadow was trying to get Nathaniel to tell him how much the materials he had lent to him cost, but he kept shoving it off. Suddenly, Shadow took notice of a mysterious, yet familiar, character battling alongside Paris' guardian angels in Nathaniel's comic.

"Who's _that_?" Shadow asked, referring to the third character.

"That's Mightyllustrator, formerly known as **Evillustrator**. He used to be an akumatised supervillain, but then Ladybug and Chat Noir de-akumatised him and he changed his name. Now he's a superhero… Uh, at least **here** he is."

As Shadow examined Mightyllustrator's appearance, it wasn't long before he started to realize **why** he looked so familiar.

"Wait, is he… _you_?"

"Finally figured it out? Yeah, he is, or was. Chloé saw my drawings of Marinette and started making fun of me. That was when I got akumatised by Hawk Moth. Luckily, the experience helped me come up with these new ideas for my comic book."

"I see." Shadow darted his sour gaze toward the entitled blonde-girl, who blew a kiss and winked in his general direction. This did nothing but turn Shadow's sour gaze into a glare for a second before he spoke what was on his mind. "So, it doesn't bother you? Being forced to become… something _else_… against your will?"

"Of course it does… every day. But _this_…" He motions to his book of comics. "It kind of helps me through it. Sure, Hawk Moth turned me into something bad, but… now I can use that experience and turn _it_ into something **good**."

"_Hmmm_…"

"_Taking a bad experience and creating something __**good**__ from it._" Shadow smirked at the familiarity. "_You're a smart kid, Nathaniel. I'll give you that._"

* * *

As Nathaniel continued to sketch, he and Shadow continued to bounce ideas off of each other. After a while, Nathaniel had already drawn up a page of how he thinks the fight would start between Mightyllustrator, Chat Noir and Dark Chaos, all fighting over Ladybug without her knowing.

"Awesome!" Said Nathaniel. "Shadow, how do come up with these great ideas?"

"I…" Shadow thought over his response. "I've seen things… and then these ideas just come to me."

"Yeah, I understand. So many things and people inspire me every day." Suddenly, a buzzing sound was heard and Nathaniel pulled out his vibrating phone. He looked at the screen for a second and his eyes widened, but then his face quickly turned into a smile as he put it away. "C'mon."

"Huh?"

As Shadow questioned the request, Nathaniel stood up in front of him and offered him his hand.

"Trust me, you're gonna wanna see this."


	5. Chapter 5

Nathaniel led Shadow through Paris. Eventually, they had to stop for a reason unknown to Shadow.

"Nathaniel, what is going on?" Shadow asked him.

"Just trust me. You're going to like this. Okay, now close your eyes." Shadow eyed him suspiciously. "I promise. This is a good thing."

As Nathaniel gave Shadow the sincerest smile that he could muster, Shadow was contemplating over whether or not he should play along. In the end, he reluctantly closed his eyes.

"This had better not be a prank or some kind of trick." He warned.

"It's not. I promise." Said Nathaniel as he walked around Shadow.

Suddenly, there was something wrapped around Shadow's head, covering his already shut eyes.

"What is this?!"

"Just a safety precaution. I can't risk you opening your eyes too soon."

He then took Shadow by the hands and they continued walking, Nathaniel often warning him to watch his step as they walked.

* * *

"Alright, that's it! Nathaniel, **where** are we going?!"

"Just trust me."

"I already trust you and I'm starting to regret it. What is going on?!"

"We're nearly there."

"[I'm **this** close to ripping this thing off my face.]" Shadow grumbled in English.

"Huh?"

"Nothing! Just hurry up!"

Suddenly, Shadow found himself climbing what seemed to be stairs. He couldn't see, but he could hear. He could hear the sound the footsteps, not just Nathaniel's. He could hear shushing and hushing. They finally stopped and Nathaniel, after releasing Shadow, finally gave the word.

"Alright, you can open your eyes now."

Whenever Shadow was in a suspicious situation, he would raise his guard. He thought that he was prepared for anything; an akumatised villain, a silly prank, a bill for all the paper and writing utensils he had previously borrowed from Nathan, even for a point should the situation turn… awkward… However, he was **not** prepared for what he saw when he finally opened his eyes.

_**POP**_

"SURPRISE!" Everyone shouted, pulling the strings from party poppers and letting confetti fly everywhere.

Shadow was… stunned. He had no words for what he was looking at. Marinette, her parents, Principal Damocles, Ms. Bustier, and the whole class was here (sans Chloé and Sabrina), most of them with big smiles on their faces. They were gathered around a table covered in assorted hand baked snacks and a punch bowl. Hanging above their heads was a banner that read "En I'honneur de Shadow Robotnik".

"W-What's all this?" Shadow asked, completely dumbfounded.

"This is for _you_, Shadow." Nathaniel explained.

"Marinette told us that this was your last day here at school, and she wanted to throw you a 'Goodbye' party." Said Kim.

"We all thought that it was sweet idea!" Said Rose.

"So, we all came together to help her put it together." Said Mylène.

"_After_ I cleared it all up with Mr. Damocles." Said Ms. Bustier.

This was when Tom and Sabine approached him, Sabine holding a large, metal dish covered in a metal dome.

"Well, were you surprised?" Asked Sabine.

"Uh, yes… I suppose I was, but why?" Asked Shadow.

"You can ask Marinette." Said Tom. "After all, it was _her_ idea."

He then looked at Marinette (she had a wrapped box in her arms for some reason) and saw that she was blushing, probably out of embarrassment.

"And while you're having fun, feel free to have a little something to eat." Sabine then lifted the metallic dome to reveal what was hidden underneath.

"My tourmaline charlotte royale!" Shadow exclaimed, seeing the cake covered in roll slices covered in a raspberry glaze.

"We hope you don't mind. We just thought it would be perfect for the party." Said Tom.

Shadow told them that it was no problem and they left to set the cake on the table with the rest of the food. He turned back to see Marinette talking with her friends, and she glanced back at him with a smile. Shadow was still confused but also flattered. He looked around and suddenly caught sight of Juleka. They locked eyes for a second before Juleka quickly turned around to hide her face behind her hair, but Shadow still caught a glimpse of some pink on her cheeks. He felt his stomach suddenly ache, but it wasn't from Hawk Moth's power. He decided to just keep her out of his line of sight for the time being.

For a while, Shadow's classmates were all giving him their best wishes and wishing him a safe trip home to Japan. Kim told him that he wanted Shadow to come back to Paris one day, desiring a rematch to the arm-wrestling matches (yes, plural) that Shadow had won one previous day (yes, singular). Alix told Shadow that she wanted to race him just once, never actually getting the chance, which he refused, calling it a "waste of time" (Alix wasn't the one whom he owed a debt to). Mylène wanted to give Shadow her best wishes and thanked him for his help that one time. Shadow just played along with his lie of a life whenever it was brought up, only being fully honest with Marinette, Adrien, Alya and Nino, since they all actually knew the truth.

"You know; you didn't have to do this for me." Shadow said to Marinette.

"I know, but… well, after everything we've been through, I didn't want you to just leave with a couple 'goodbyes'. I wanted today to be **special**."

"… But why? What did _I_ ever do to deserve all **this**?"

She grasped Shadow's hand and squeezed it warmly.

"So much."

Although Marinette didn't bother to hide her blushing face, Shadow, after a minute, suddenly felt his _own_ face warm up and pulled away.

"I haven't been here for that long. Nothing I've done could be good enough for this… but thank you."

Although, it had faltered for a moment, Marinette's smile returned to her face. She then held out the box that she had been holding.

"I made this for you. I hope you like it."

Shadow wholeheartedly accepted the gift and opened it. It was a red spring jacket with a black collar and sleeves. It was also decorated with thin streams of gold, and the golden threads would lead to the back where they came together to form the shape of an orchid flower.

"I love it." He said with a smile as he happily dawned the garment.

Once again, his eyes had accidentally fallen on Juleka. Marinette, noticing him becoming distracted by something, turned around and saw what had caught his attention.

"Juleka's been like that ever since she walked in." Tikki said, poking her head out to do so. "You should talk to her."

"'Talk to her'?" Shadow questioned.

"Well, it looks like she has something to say."

"[Yeah, I'm sure she does.]" Shadow muttered.

"Huh?" Marinette went when she heard him.

"Uh, nothing… Alright, I'll go talk to her."

Juleka was currently talking to Rose about whether or not she should just leave, Rose obviously trying to convince her to stay. Shadow had finally approached the girls just as the conversation had reached its midpoint. He got their attention and requested to speak to Juleka privately, to which Rose hesitantly allowed. Shadow led Juleka not too far away from the party, but just far enough that their conversation could not be heard. With the two of them close to one another and facing each other, the atmosphere had suddenly grown quite thick.

"Well, what is it?" Juleka asked.

At first, Shadow stopped himself, desiring to think over what he should say to her. Shadow thought back to that night and remembered the akuma, looking at the hand he used to pull it away from Juleka. He sighed as he made up his mind.

"I'm sorry… I know I obviously offended you, and I'm sorry."

"… Well, if that's all you have to say—"

"It's not… After our date, I started to finally notice the harm that my… poor choices were causing to those around me… And it just recently dawned on me how I must have hurt you, too. The truth is, I really _did_ go on that date with you out of a feeling of obligation."

Hearing this only made Juleka feel worse.

* * *

Elsewhere, large metal covers moved out of the way to allow what little sunlight was left outside to pass through the large window with the insectoid resembling shape and into the dark, private room. The light fell on the evil man as he spoke to himself, his mind filling with ideas to use this time to procure Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses.

"Ah. What a familiar feeling this is. Could this be a second chance fate has given me?" Hawk Moth opened his hands, allowing a white butterfly to fall into it; however, just when he was about to place his second hand on top of it, he stopped, pondering the possibilities. Hawk Moth, after releasing the insect, then turned around and eyed what was on the table behind him. He wondered if it would work. He walked over to the table, lifted the glass container and placed it to the side. He then lifted up the large, purple beryl-gemstone and smiled maliciously at it as it glowed brighter with every dark thought that rushed through the super-villain's head. "Well, we haven't come this far without taking risks!"

* * *

"You should have just told me that you didn't like me instead of just leading me on like that."

"_(sigh)_ I know, and you're right, but I didn't know how else to repay you. I just wanted my em— er, my jewel back. I'm sorry for being so selfish. I know that must not be enough, but I just felt like I had to say it."

"Fine, you've said it."

Juleka started to walk off and Shadow was about to let her when he noticed at strange twinge in his stomach. Suddenly, something came over him and he quickly reached and grabbed her hand.

"Wait! Please! At least let me say one more thing."

"Fine, if it'll help you not feel guilty." She said, pulling her hand free.

"I now realize that I should have told the truth on our date… to both you_ and _myself, but what I was doing at the time was just trying to ignore my feelings, hoping they would just… go away on their own… but instead, that only made things worse. Please understand, Juleka, I never meant to hurt you." Shadow stepped up to her and took her hands into his own. "And right now, before anything else happens, I just want to say 'Thank you'."

Juleka's cheeks were turning bright pink.

"Huh?"

"That jewel is more important to me than you know. Thank you so much for returning it to me." Shadow held her hands in his own. "I can't return your feelings, but I want you to know that I think you are a very nice girl, and I appreciate your kindness." Shadow then leaned in close, and Juleka's face turned an even deeper shade of red. "I'm not sure I fully understand your French customs, but… I hope this suffices to further emphasize my apology and gratitude. Still, I can understand if you still can't forgive me for my cruelty."

Shadow wasted no time and kissed Juleka on both of her cheeks. Suddenly, Juleka's surprised expression turned into a kind smile.

"I… accept your apology."

Shadow smiled back and so, the two of them returned to their friends, Juleka to Rose and Shadow to Marinette, but then, Shadow remembered something.

"Juleka." He said without turning around, yet still gaining her attention. "… You were right."

"Huh?"

"I said 'You were right'… I **was** in love with Marinette… and I still am, but I want to make something clear. You can rest assured; I will not do anything to her or Adrien. _He_ is the one she loves, and I respect that. I just want her to be happy." Shadow turned partway around, allowing Juleka to see one of his brown eyes and his calm grin. "And **he** makes her happy."

With that, he turned back around and continued walking until he reached Marinette.

"Juleka, is everything alright." Asked Rose.

"I… think so." Said Juleka.

* * *

It wasn't long until Mr. Damocles informed the classmates that since it was getting late, they would have to wrap up their party. That was when Kim had the "brilliant" idea to start chanting the word "speech", which somehow encouraged the rest of the classmates to join in. Despite Shadow's multiple refusals, they had seemed to have fallen on deaf ears since they weren't even acknowledging his words. Before long, he was in front of everyone. He gave a hard sigh and decided that he might as well get it over with; after all, he **did** enjoy himself, even if it was only a little.

"I'd just like to say; thank you, everyone, for doing this." He was going to wrap it up and call it a day, but then he saw Marinette and she waved her hand in a motion that read "keep going". He paused and collected his thoughts. "_(sigh)_ You… didn't really have any obligation to do this, but you did. This was… amazing, everyone. I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me." Shadow looked at them all and actually smiled… a little bit. "Your school, your community, your city… Well, **everything **is just beautiful. I promise, I will do all within my power to never forget these experiences. You know, ever since I started living with Marinette and her parents, she has said nothing but great things about all of you. And after the short time I have spent with you, you have confirmed everything she said true." By now, he allowed his face to fall. "But it's getting late… Tomorrow, I will be on the earliest plane to Tokyo that my school can get me. I… I guess this is goodbye."

Now everyone was frowning and muttering. Shadow then started walking toward the exit and was almost out the door when Marinette finally decided that it was time for her to say something.

"Shadow, wait!" Shadow heard, but it wasn't Marinette's voice. When he turned around, he saw Sabine and Tom, standing between him and everyone else. "Tom and I were thinking."

"And we were talking." Said Tom.

"And, well, we both agreed that… well since you love it here so much and… you and Marinette are such great friends, we thought that… maybe you shouldn't have to leave."

Shadow could only stare at them quizzically.

"What are you saying?" He asked.

"Shadow, we want you to join our family. Really become a part of it." Sabine then pulled out a sheet of paper with both hers and Tom's signatures written across two dotted lines at the bottom and handed it to Shadow.

"A-adoption papers?!" Shadow questioned in utter shock as he read the page.

"What?!" Questioned Marinette when she heard as everyone else started muttering again, _this _time, more excitedly. "Mom, Dad. You really want to… **adopt** Shadow?"

"What do you say?" Asked Sabine.

"Would you like to join our family." Asked Tom.

If this request were coming from any other person, Shadow would have walked away, not even giving it a single thought, but with Tom and Sabine, the first two people to give Shadow any form of parental love and care since his father, Gerald Robotnik, Shadow actually started to imagine it. In a few seconds, he imagined what this life would be like.

He imagined waking up in his own room and coming into the kitchen to see his mother, Sabine, making breakfast for the whole family. Tom would come in and give his son a squeeze against his side with one massive arm before sitting down to eat. Marinette, someone whom he loved and cared for, who would now be his little sister, would come down and give him a 'good-morning' hug. He would imagine him and Marinette walking to school together every day (_he_ would be in charge of making sure that they were never late). He would walk into class and sit next to Nathaniel every day. He would probably have his own school supplies so he wouldn't have to ask his friend for any more. After school, he would either hang out with his friends, or if need be, he would dawn his superhero costume and help Paris' guardian angels protect the city from Hawk Moth. And at the end of the day, he would come home to his family. He would help them, love them… he would… he would… He wouldn't.

Although these thoughts actually made him happy, his conscience had reminded him of why he couldn't stay. Mobius needed the chaos emeralds… and _him_. Prof. Gerald created Shadow the Hedgehog to be Mobius' guardian savior. He wasn't some 15-year-old child meant to have fun with friends. He wasn't a high school student who had their entire life ahead of them. He wasn't ordinary. He wasn't young. And above all else, he wasn't… **human**. Shadow looked at them, **all** of them, with the blankest, most emotionless face physically possible.

"I'm sorry." He said, with as much emotion as there was visible on his face as he returned the page to their hands. "But no matter how much I would like to…" Shadow turned away from them and faced the door. "I can't. I don't have a family, but I **do** have responsibilities."

Shadow took one step forward and then stopped. He turned around and saw that the parents looked heartbroken. He then turned his attention to someone else and walked over to him. He reached into his pocket to retrieve something.

"Shadow?" Nathaniel questioned when he saw that his friend was now standing right in front of him.

"Here." Shadow pulled out all of the money that he had and placed it into Nathaniel's hands. "For the paper and pens. Thank you, Nathaniel… for being my friend. Goodbye."

Shadow then leaned forward and kissed both of his cheeks. Shadow took two steps back before turning around and leaving, acknowledging those of whom he passed.

"Goodbye, Tom, Sabine… Goodbye, Alya, Nino… Goodbye, Adrien, _(cough) Plagg (cough)_… Goodbye…" Shadow stopped for a moment as he was passing by Marinette. "_(cough) (cough) Tikki (cough) (cough) (cough) (augh)_! Is there a dust cloud in here?! _(cough) (ahe-hem)_"

Shadow continued walking after his fake coughing fit was finished.

"Shadow!" Marinette called, causing Shadow to stop again. _"Please, stay."_ were the only words that were on her mind, but she didn't say them. She **couldn't** say them, no matter how much she wanted to.

"Goodbye, Marinette. I'm happy that I was _lucky_ enough to meet someone like you."

Shadow continued walking, not allowing anyone to see the tears running down his face.

_**SHA-BOOM**_

There suddenly was an explosion so great that it shook all of Paris, knocking most of everyone to the ground. Then there was a wave of purple energy draping across the skies. The power was so great; Shadow could feel it from the ground. Not long after the wave had passed, everyone started talking about what it could have been. Most of everyone's first guesses were the same idea; Hawk Moth.

"Everyone, return to your homes immediately!" Mr. Damocles announced.

Suddenly, a butterfly flew right by his face, but there was something odd about it. It wasn't black with glowing purple lines on its wings, but glowing _purple_ with **black** lines on its wings. It flew straight for Rose.

"Get back! That's an akuma!" Shadow shouted.

Juleka immediately grabbed Rose by the hand and tried to run away from the glowing butterfly, but not long after, everyone heard Mylène scream. They looked up and saw what she was screaming at. More purple glowing butterflies descended from the sky, each one moving toward a specific person. The collective students scattered around the school floor, trying to get away. Mylène tried to run, but was eventually cornered by the akuma chasing her. Ivan, seeing his beloved in peril, jumped in front of her with his arms outstretched.

"Back off, you dumb butterfly! If you want to get to her, you'll have to go through me **first**!" He declared.

Unfortunately, despite this heroic act, the butterfly proceeded to "meet Ivan halfway". It flew right into his chest, but not completely through him. In an instant, Ivan's body became engulfed in purple energy and he grew in size until he was twice his original size. In a flash, the energy dissipated to reveal Ivan, now towering in size and mass, every inch of his body made entirely out of living stone and his eyes glowing purple. He let out a roar, and Mylène screamed her love's name, but there was no response. Suddenly, the akuma that was chasing Ivan flew around him and into Mylène. The same events happened to her, only _this_ time, her body was morphed into some kind of three eyed monster, and all three of her eyes were also purple.

All around those whom the butterflies ignored, these transformations continued. Kim, Alix, Max, Juleka and Rose were all transformed into supervillains right before their eyes. Shadow looked and saw everyone else still running from the akumas. Over in a corner, he saw Nathaniel with an akuma about to transform him. He was about to run off to rescue him when he heard Sabine.

"Tom!"

Shadow looked and saw Tom transformed into the evil Baker right before his eyes; however, he looked different than when he first saw him because his eyes were now purple, as well.

"No!" Shadow shouted.

He turned back toward Nathaniel and saw him transform. In a flash, his appearance resembled that of the character in his comic book; white costume with purple stripes, a tablet on his arm and a pencil in his opposite hand. Shadow heard Alya scream and Nino shout. When he turned to look at them, he saw two purple eyed supervillains in their place; one wearing a skin-tight black suit with a white Wi-Fi signal symbol on her chest, and one wearing what had to be one of the stupidest costumes he had ever seen in his life. It looked like parts of it were intentionally inflated with some weird antenna on his head and a what could only be a giant tube of blowing bubbles on his back. If this were any "normal" day, then he would say something blunt, but seeing as how all of his new friends and classmates were being akumatised right now, the only thoughts going through his mind were "How did this happen?!".

"Time to get those miraculous!" He heard one of them shout.

The rest of the other villains all started shouting the same thing before departing to do just that… All, except for two in particular, since they both already knew exactly where the miraculous were. Alya raised her smartphone up and swiped it towards Marinette while Nino grabbed his massive bubble wand and swung it out in front of him, sending a torrent of red bubbles racing toward Adrien. They both managed to dodge out of the way, but the two supervillains (Nino now using green bubbles) continued to throw volley after volley of their attacks, trying to capture the teenagers.

"Marinette!" Sabine called.

The teens turned around and saw the non-akumatised adults hiding inside of a classroom.

"Kids! In here!" Called Ms. Bustier.

The children ran for the door as they tried their best to outmaneuver the bubbles and smartphone icons being flung at them. Shadow, finding little difficulty in dodging, followed closely behind them to offer cover support. Whenever he noticed an attack heading for one of them, he would warn them ahead of time. Once they reached the door and everyone was inside, they used all that they could find to barricade the doors. They then heard the two supervillains violently banging on the door.

"They've all been… a-kumatised?!" Asked Shadow.

"How is that even possible? I though Hawk Moth could only transform **one** person at a time." Said Sabine.

"But why did all of the other villains leave while these two stayed here?" Asked Mr. Damocles.

"Clearly the Bubbler and Lady Wifi think we have something they want." Ms. Bustier deduced.

"Come out here and give us your miraculous!" Shouted the Bubbler.

Marinette and Adrien held their breath, remembering that Nino and Alya knew who Ladybug and Chat Noir's secret identities were.

"'Miraculous'?" Sabine repeated.

"They think one of us has a miraculous?" Mr. Damocles questioned.

"Wait a minute!" Ms. Bustier's words caught the attention of the entire room.

Being the intelligent educator that she was, started to put the pieces together. She remembered how Alya and Nino always spent the most time around two particular students. She turned around and faced those two students causing the other adults, out of curiosity, to do the same. The children knew that Ms. Bustier was no fool, and if it weren't for the magic of their miraculous, even if their hero transformations were more ornate, she would probably be one of the first to recognize them.

"Just hand over your miraculous and nobody has to get hurt!" Demanded Lady Wifi.

Marinette and Adrien knew that by now, they had to have been found out.

"I guess there's not much choice, is there?" Shadow walked up from behind the two teens, disregarding the looks everyone was giving him as he approached the adults, only to walk right past them and up to the barricaded. "Marinette, Adrien; you, Alya and Nino all did well in hiding my secret, but now, there is no time for secrets."

_**VOIP**_

In a flash of light that left the adults stunned, Shadow had vanished. Meanwhile, outside of the classroom, Shadow appeared out of a similar flash of light behind the villains.

"Well, well, well… What do we have here?" Asked Bubbler.

"Mr. 'I'm-Not-A-Superhero'." Said Lady Wifi.

"Enough talk. Let's fight!" Shadow declared before rushing them both with his super speed and knocking them both to the floor.

Lady Wifi and Bubbler recovered quickly and started bombarding him with green bubbles and "pause" and "stop" icons. Shadow warped behind Bubbler and through him into a "stop" icon, freezing him in place while Lady Wifi jumped out of the way of the bubbles. Lady Wifi, having witnessed what had happened to Bubbler, quickly erased the icon before Shadow could stop her. Of course, Shadow **still** managed to get behind her to karate chop her and knock her out. Bubbler yelled out in a fit of rage after seeing this, but before he could do anything, Shadow dashed up to him and delivered a powerful drop-kick to his face, knocking him through a wall.

With both supervillains incapacitated, all that was left to do was to let everyone else out. He approached the door and ripped it off its hinges (he figured that Ladybug's powers could just repair it later). He then pushed the barricade out of the way with ease, allowing everyone to exit the room.

"Sh-Shadow?! Y-you're—?!"

"Dark Chaos?" Shadow said before Sabine could continue. "Yes, I am. When I came here, I tried my best to keep my powers a secret, but Marinette discovered them when I saved her. After she showed me how trustworthy she and her friends were, I decided to entrust them with my secret. Unfortunately, Alya and Nino **still** don't fully understand how my powers work, so they probably just assumed that I had a miraculous, which I don't. That's why they were attacking us." Shadow looked at an utterly shocked Sabine with a somber expression. "I'm sorry I lied to you and Tom. The last thing I wanted was for you or anyone to be put in danger because of me."

Sabine slowly approached Shadow, placed her hands on his face and looked him over.

"Are you hurt?" She asked compassionately.

Shadow smiled at this and pulled her hands away from his face.

"I'm fine." Shadow then looked at the two villains. "And I'm sure _they're_ fine, as well. Just a little incapacitated."

"But what are we going to do?! We can't just leave them here!" Said Mr. Damocles. "Oh! If only Ladybug was here. She could just de-akumatise them."

As Shadow eyed the villains' unconscious bodies, an idea sprouted in his head.

"I may not have a magic yo-yo, but I _do_ have an idea." He said as he approached Lady Wifi.

Suddenly, he felt a hand grab his own and turned around to see Marinette holding on to him tightly.

"What are you doing?!" She asked him.

"If I can drain the dark energy from their akumas, then they'll be cured, right?"

"Yes, but it's very dangerous!"

"We have no choice. We can't just sit here and _wait for Ladybug_." He said that last part from between clenched teeth just before he pried his hand free. He then repositioned Lady Wifi so that she was on her back, removed an inhibitor ring and placed the same hand just above her stomach. "I hope this works… Chaos Siphon!"

Suddenly, Lady Wifi's eyes shot wide open and she let out a deafening scream. Pillars of purple light shout out of her eyes and mouth, reaching no farther than half a meter. As Shadow's hand glowed green with chaos energy, purple energy could also be seen erupting from Lady Wifi's body before being sucked right into Shadow's green palm. His face contorted in pain as everyone looked at him, extreme worry present on all of their faces. He let out a small groan as he continued. After a few seconds, her screams lessened as her eyes and mouth stopped glowing and Shadow pulled away his hand. He tried to stand up, only to stumble backwards, holding his hand that appeared to be steaming. He was breathing heavily and eventually couldn't hold himself up any longer. He dropped to his knees, still holding his hand even though it had stopped steaming.

Marinette tried to run to his side, but was held back by a wary Adrien. The upper half of Shadow's face was hidden behind his hair. They were all nervous to approach him, but then Lady Wifi's upper body shot upright as she let out a gasp as though she had awoken from a shocking dream. She looked around, panting as Marinette pulled her arm free of her boyfriend's grasp.

"Alya!" She exclaimed as she rushed to her best friend's side. "Are you alright?"

"Marinette, get away from that supervillain!" Mr. Damocles shouted.

"Can you all stop shouting for a minute?" Asked Lady Wifi, rubbing her forehead. "At least until the room stops spinning… _ugh_… What happened last night?"

"A-Alya?!" Questioned Adrien.

"_Yeah_? Who else?"

As she looked around, everything came back into focus. She rubbed her head again but then noticed that she couldn't feel her own skin, but rather, some kind of material. She pulled her hand in front of her face and saw a white glove. She followed it up her own arm to her elbow where it was cut off by black and white stripes. She kept looking, and saw that from that point on, it turned black. She eventually got to her chest where she saw what looked like three curved, white stripes.

It was at that moment that she finally remembered what had happened; the purple akumas, the entire class screaming and running, everyone changing. She even remembered the akuma that was right in front of her, but that was when everything went dark before she woke up, now dressed like this. Alya sprang to her feet, stammering, trying to make sense of what was going on. Marinette grasped her shoulders, and with that, Alya took a breath and calmed her nerves. That was when she noticed Shadow in front of her. Everyone eyed him in worry as he continued to pant.

"Shadow?" Marinette asked in worry.

"I-I…" He raised his head and they all saw his face and eyes. "I'm alright."

Despite what they just witnessed, Shadow seemed fine. His face wasn't red and his eyes weren't yellow.

"Okay! Now can **somebody** please tell me what just happened?" Asked Alya.

"You were being controlled, so I used Chaos Syphon to drain the dark magic out of your body."

Although Alya seemed calm and collected on the outside, on the _inside_, she was in a tizzy over what she just heard.

"Okay, wait. If you just sucked the evil out of me, then why am I still like **this** and _you_ seem fine?"

"_(augh)_!" Shadow grabbed his arm, but then released it to hold his other hand out to stop everyone from rushing towards him. "I'm okay! I'm okay! But I can feel it. This power, coursing through me… It seems to be an imperfect combination of miraculous magic and… chaos energy."

"_What_ kind of energy?" Asked Ms. Bustier.

"It's a form of magic that I use." Shadow walked up to the teens. "Which can only mean **one** thing." The children all worse looks of terror on their faces since they knew what this meant. "If Hawk Moth has a source of chaos energy, then there is no doubt in my mind that he's now using it to increase his own power, which would explain your eyes, Alya."

"My what?! What's wrong with my eyes?!" Alya asked in worry.

As Shadow got up and began to walk past them, Alya pulled out her phone and used her camera to check. She then saw that her eyes were now purple. She felt like she was going to freak out, but instead, she was caught off guard when she heard the sound of her boyfriend's voice screaming in agony. Everyone turned and saw Shadow, siphoning the dark power out of Bubbler, purple rays of light erupting out of his eyes and mouth.

"Nino!" Alya exclaimed and rushed over just in time for Shadow to finish.

As Shadow backed away in pain, Alya wasted no time dropping to her knees beside Bubbler.

"He should be fine." Shadow said as everyone gathered around.

Alya lifted up his head and laid it down onto her lap, looking at him with worry. It wasn't long until Nino slowly opened his eyes and caught sight of his girlfriend. At first he smiled until he realized that he was actually looking at Lady Wifi.

"Aw, man. Don't tell this is another 'My girlfriend kills me' nightmare." Nino said groggily.

"Relax. You're awake." He heard Shadow say.

Nino's eyes widened and he slowly lifted himself up.

"Ow!" He said, rubbing his own back. "Did I get hit by a truck or sumthin'?"

"_A-heh_. Close enough, I think." Alya half-joked as she gestured to Shadow who was still nursing his own hand.

"Nino, try not to freak out," Nino heard his best friend, Adrien, say and turned to look at him, "but you and Alya were both akumatised and are now Bubbler and Lady Wifi."

"Oh, okay." After a second, the information finally clicked. "Wait, WHAT?!"

Nino then proceeded to stand up and look himself over, confirming what Adrien had previously stated. As this was happening, Shadow slowly made his way over to Adrien's side.

"Well, he's taking it a lot better than _I_ would have guessed." Said Shadow.

"But… how come we're not evil?" Nino asked after calming down.

"Shadow." Said Marinette.

"He used his powers to suck the evil out of you." Adrien continued.

"I was able to siphon **some **of it from your bodies, but not all of it. I'm sorry." Shadow said, concluding the explanation.

Alya came to Nino's side and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"But how did this happen?" Alya questioned.

"Hawk Moth. He must have found the last chaos emerald and used it to enhance his powers."

The two teens-turned-supervillains were silent for a few seconds.

"Dude, this totally bites." Said Nino.

Suddenly, faint screams were heard coming from all directions. As everyone ran outside to see what was happening, they all realized something odd happening with the weather; it was **snowing**. They exited out the main doors and found people running away from something. Looking around, the children and adults could see that some of the trees and even whole buildings had somehow become frozen in ice. They all looked around to find the cause, but it was Adrien who discovered the one responsible.

"Up there!" He yelled, pointing toward the sky.

They all looked on to see a teenaged girl holding a black parasol. She wore a matching black dress and had black and white hair done in twin pigtails hanging from the back of her head. She laughed maniacally, raising her parasol up toward the sky as lightning struck around her.

"That's Stormy Weather!" Exclaimed Ms. Bustier.

"Hawk Moth re-akumatised her, too?!" Exclaimed Alya.

"He must have re-akumatised **everyone**!" Exclaimed Adrien.

"We have to get out of here! It's not safe!" Mr. Damocles announced to the group.

Shadow looked up at Stormy Weather, but then, she caught sight him and the others. His eyes widened when he saw the look in _her's_. Not wanting to waste any time, he reached into her pocket and reached out his hand.

"Chaos Barrier!" He shouted, just as Stormy Weather waved her parasol and sent a bolt of lightning down upon them. The barrier deflected the attack, but Shadow couldn't keep it up all day. "Everyone join hands. I'm going to teleport us all out of here!"

While they were doing just that, Stormy Weather was approaching them, not stopping her assault of lightning. Shadow felt Marinette's hand on his wrist and waited for the perfect moment before dropping the barrier.

"Chaos Control!" He shouted and they were all gone in a flash of light before another bolt of lightning could hit them.

* * *

_**VOIP**_

They appeared before a set of escalators. They looked up and saw several rhomboid panes of glass shining with the lights from outside.

"The Louvre?" Questioned Ms. Bustier.

"We had to get as far away from her as possible." Shadow explained. "I thought this would be the best place for you all to hide."

"What do you mean 'you'?" Asked Marinette.

"I have to go out there and stop Hawk Moth."

"What?!" Everyone else exclaimed questioningly.

"Are you mad?! You saw what happened to those students! It's going to be a war-zone out there!" Said Mr. Damocles.

"If I can retrieve the chaos emerald, then that should put an end to this madness." Said Shadow.

"And what if it doesn't?" Asked Alya. "What if you get your emerald back, but it doesn't work?"

"Then I'll try something else. Ladybug and Chat Noir have never faced off against a threat of this scale before. Like you said, Mr. Damocles, it's going to be a war-zone out there. The city's going to need every soldier they've got." Shadow then started jumping up the escalators and grinded up the railing, only stopping as soon as he reached the top. "And I am the Ultimate." Shadow turned toward the doors but couldn't leave without saying one last thing. "Sabine… I **will** save Tom."

_**VOIP**_

And in a flash of light, he was gone. They all stood there, watching the doors for a few more seconds until they heard Alya.

"Hey, where's Marinette?"

At that moment, they all looked around and saw that she was no longer beside Adrien. Sabine, after just losing her husband and Shadow, started calling out to her daughter, but there was no reply. Everyone started looking around but could only find her shoe, discarded in a random hallway. They all regrouped and found that not only was Marinette missing, but now Adrien, Alya and Nino were, as well.

Sabine, more desperate than ever to find any sign of her daughter, ran down the halls of the museum, calling her name. Ms. Bustier, deciding that it would be best to stick together, led Mr. Damocles to follow after her, calling out the names of the other missing children. Suddenly, they heard the sounds of footsteps and ran toward them. They all rounded the corner, but instead of a teenager standing before them, they were shocked to find that it was actually a mummy. The adults backed away in fear only to bump into another mummy. They all looked around and found that they were now suddenly surrounded by mummies.

"Finally, with my scepter in hand, I can achieve my goal of summoning my beloved Nefertiti back from the dead." The adults turned to source of the deep voice speaking and saw the supervillain known as the Pharaoh. "Ah, and it would seem more of my subjects have come to offer themselves to Rah. Adding _you_ three to my army of mummies brings me one step closer to my precious Nefertiti! Anubis, give me mummies!"

The golden helm that covered his entire head shined a blinding light and changed shape to resemble the jackal-like face of the Egyptian God of Death, Anubis. A new light then shined from the eyes of the helm, striking directly at the teacher, principal and mother.

* * *

Outside, Dark Chaos stood atop roof of the Louvre Palace and saw nothing but chaos tainting the beauty of the City of Lights.

"[This is all my fault.]" He said to himself in English. "[If I hadn't wasted time and just took the emerald when I had the chance… I need to get the chaos emerald back.]"

"I may not speak English," he heard Marinette's voice and turned around and looked down to see Ladybug, Chat Noir, Bubbler and Lady Wifi all standing on the ledge. "But I think I can understand what you're saying, and I want you to know that we're with you Shadow."

"All of us." Said Chat Noir.

"Don't even think about trying to run off without us." Said Lady Wifi.

"We're not being left behind _this_ time." Said Bubbler.

With one of his trademark grunts, Dark Chaos' blank expression turned into a determined grin.

"Right. Then let's go." He said, turning around.

"Alright, 'Dark Chaos', just do your 'sensing' thing and lead the way." Said Lady Wifi as her friends all jumped up onto the roof.

Once she too joined the team of heroes on top of the roof of the palace, they all looked out to the city and saw, not only chaos and destruction, but not too far away shined a giant pillar of purple light reaching up to the heavens. As most of them looked on in fearful awe, one of them looked on in worry due to **where** the pillar was erupting from, and another looked on in sheer determination, adamant to right this wrong and save this world. He gripped his burning hand, also feeling adamant to put an end to all of this evil, be it from _there_, or from within, but the question is, will he succeed, or will this Earth meets its **demise**?


End file.
